Employing Early Years Teachers to help children develop speech and language skills.
Do you agree that every nursery should have qualified early years teachers to help children develop vital skills such as speech and language skills? According to a scientific briefing from Save the Children and the Institute of Child Health at University College there needs to be a stronger focus on investing in good quality childcare. It has also been said that if children start school behind in their development they will stay behind but is this really the case?
The idea of having qualified early years teachers in every nursery is to help children and parents with learning. The charity has suggested that if Toddlers’ brains aren’t stimulated at nursery this could set them back later on in life; this would mean that some children would find it a struggle to learn at school and may not catch up with their peers.
Many nurseries today already have a workforce that is highly qualified but not necessarily have an early year’s teacher; therefore if children in their care are making significant progress do they really need an early year’s teacher within their workforce?
More funding needed to employ Early Years Teachers
If nurseries are to have early years teachers will funding be available to enable childcare providers to pay graduate level wages, as many settings cannot afford to pay these types of wages without funding. People need to remember that it is not always the case that a higher qualification makes a good early year’s practitioner. Gaining a higher qualification can give you a more in-depth understanding of child development and theorists and managers should not overlook these valuables attributes. However sometimes there are people who work with children that demonstrate outstanding qualities but are only qualified to level 3.
Early Years Teacher Status courses being stopped due to storage of numbers
Because of the shortage of people training for Early Years Teacher Status the amount of training courses on offer are being reduced. Many people who are considering this career route are finding that Early Years Teacher Status does not guarantee the same terms and conditions as Qualified Teacher Status. This is why many people are not considering this route.
It has been said that nurseries would love to employ teachers but simply cannot afford to do this. Nurseries are already being stretched given the underfunding of the Government’s free childcare entitlement for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds.
According to Education and Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah, the key strand for the Workforce Strategy which will be published in 2016 is to look at what more can be done to encourage people to take up a career in childcare.
What are people’s views on whether nurseries should have an Early Years Teacher?