“So you’re just a baby sitter” or “you just sit and play with children all day” are comments heard all too often by early years practitioners, however, this is not the case and yes it may be playing with children, but the impact of this play on children’s development is huge.
Early education has been seen as important for children’s development since the early 1990’s when free early education was first introduced. However, more and more evidence is stacking up displaying the impact quality early education can have for children. Early years settings are no longer a place where children go to be supervised while parents work but are a key element in children being successful at school and in later life.
In particular, early years settings have a massive positive impact on children from disadvantaged backgrounds giving them access to resources and experiences they might not have at home. Quality settings can reduce the gap in development for children and ensure all children start school reaching a good level of development.
Studies have evidence how many children from impoverished backgrounds may not have access to books and hear less vocabulary than children from more financially well off backgrounds. This is why the pupil premium has been introduced and also the two-year funding to close the gaps and ensure all children have the access to the early education, skills, and resources they need.
Children are entitlement to fifteen hours a week early education to ensure all children are school-ready when it comes to starting year one. School readiness has a huge impact on a child’s life chances and not reaching a good level of development can have detrimental effects. Some on these include poor health, more chances of turning to crime, impoverished backgrounds and lower achievements at school.
This is why early years settings are so important for children’s development. Not only do children need to attend early years settings, but the settings also need to be high in quality. High-quality settings have the biggest impact and are the settings which enable children to reach their full potential and support them in reaching good levels of development.
As well as a good level of development early years settings allow children to develop a variety of other skills including, social skills, independence, expected levels of behaviour in a school environment, communication and language skills, confidence and self-esteem.
As discussed above early years settings have a larger role to play than just watching children which are why it is so important that all settings strive to be the best they can, with highly motivated and trained practitioners, excellent resources and accurately planned activities.
To ensure your setting is doing the most to support children’s development check you have the following in place:
Training plans – stating practitioners current experience and training and any future childcare training they need to attend
Completing supervisions – This will help to keep practitioners motivated and ensure they are doing the best they can do for the children
Building parent partnerships – Working closely with parents is crucial and sharing activities to complete at home is a brilliant way of helping children to reach a good level of development
Strong key person system – This will give children the confidence and support they need to learn actively, play and explore and critically think
Planning – Make sure you plan to meet individual next steps and that the planning follows children’s interests and supports development in all seven areas of the EYFS
Tracking – Complete cohort trackers and observations on a regular basis so any child who is showing clear areas of weakness can be fully supported and have plans in place to ensure they are reaching a good level of development before they start school.
All children need to have the opportunity to experience some form of early education to be school ready. The impact of not achieving school readiness can be hugely negative, and that’s why early years settings are more important than ever and early years practitioners have a more important role than ever.
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