Key Stage 2/National Curriculum

I have been privileged to gain a first hand experience of the key stage 2 curriculum in my voluntary work and find out what its all about. Key stage 2 covers years 3-6 in primary education (age 7-11) which comes under the welsh curriculum. This is Wales’ unique curriculum which sets out the foundation for what is to be taught in the classrooms involving the history, geography and culture of Wales and the locality  (BBC, 2007).

The key principles that the government aimed to achieve by bringing the curriculum into schools were:

• A sense of belonging.
• A sense of place and heritage.
• An awareness of the importance of language and literature in the history and life of Wales.
• An understanding of the creative and expressive arts in Wales.

(BBC. (2007, 09). BBC . Retrieved 03 30, 2013, from The School Gate For Parents in Wales: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/schoolgate/aboutschool/content/curriculumprimary.shtml)

The government insisted that more emphasis should be taken on core subjects such as Welsh, English, Science and Math’s and referred to other subjects as foundation. The foundation subjects involved subjects like history, design technology, geography and so on. The criticism I would consider to be a major fault is the grading and constant assessment of children starting as soon as they enter key stage 2 in year 3. I have experience this testing whilst on voluntary work and I do not believe the children should be put through this at this critical time of their development. The government has set standards that at the end of key stage 2 children should be expected to reach between levels 2-5, most expected to be on level 4  (BBC, 2007). Linking the other context and taking them into consideration I disagree strongly with the assessment criteria in key stage 2 as children should be given freedom and should not be put under pressure at that age. The other downfall to the key stage 2  assessment criteria is that the teachers themselves do the assessment therefore I don’t believe the marking criteria would be fair as teachers could possibly build relationships with the children and alter the marks to an extent. It is a positive on the other hand that teachers do mark and assess the children as if they went to external exam boards to be marked and they come back as bad results the child would perhaps lose motivation, self-esteem and the love for learning.

 Pictures taken at Tal-Y-Copa Primary school by myself.

With my voluntary work in a year 3 classroom I was able to get a taste of key stage 2 being taught in a classroom and I was able to understand the values and the government’s aims more. The environment is more relaxed and children are allowed to socialize and have interacting times in the morning or afternoon where they discuss what they've got up to in their social life. The picture above is of a classroom display with the children’s work put on it. This is effective and this stage of their developmental process as children can see and identify the work they've done which encourages love for learning and builds self-esteem towards learning. I was also given a sheet of a planned physical education lesson the teacher had prepared where the children were outdoors rehearsing a real life scenario of being shepherds and guiding the sheep (other children who were blind-folded) back to the correct place by using a code of taping or clapping without actually communicating. This was encouraging to see that a physical education lesson had real life scenarios and could teach them the values and importance of scenarios like this rather than just playing a competitive sport such as football or rugby.  

Play

Play should be considered a key factor in the early years of a child’s life most importantly but also in their entire childhood as well in order to provide the best possible education for the child. I believe it is highly important for adults to understand the nature of play and how to accommodate them and provide the necessary tools and the environment to accomplish this. According to Sheridan (2002) there are several types of play which contributes to the development of children’s knowledge and understanding. There are six key types of play which Sheridan talks about. They are active play, explorative and manipulative play, imitative play, and games with rules, constructive and pretend play. All of these contribute towards the development of the child. Sheridan (2002) also highlights the key developmental changes with in children.

“Development means far more than just growth, it is about gaining and perfecting a whole range of other skills and abilities…Children’s development comprises a complex mixture of progressive changes” (Sheridan, Harding, & Meldon-Smith, 2002, p.5)

From my own experience of voluntary work I was able to understand more about the importance of play in children’s education and how much of an important aspect it is in their learning process.

This picture I have taken is of a sand pit at my local primary school (Tal-y-copa primary school) where children have just finished playing, after listening to their conversation about creating a ‘butterfly mountain’ it is clear that the four children that were playing here have accommodated each other’s imagination in order to create it. This is vital to learning in my opinion at this age as this demonstrates they’re skills which have already developed such as team work, listening and communicating. This was encouraging to see children at such a young age use their ideas and put them into one to create this ‘butterfly mountain’. As Tepperman (2007) explains that play provides key benefits for cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and moral development (cited in Elkind, 2007) for children from all socio-economic, cultural, and linguistic is backgrounds (cited in Zigler, E. & Bishop-Josef, S., 2006) because it gives them the opportunity to express themselves with other peers. Reeve (2012) argues that there is a positive background behind play and its not an usefulness tool within learning as famous educationalists such as Juhin Huizinga, who went against the idea of play. Reeve’s argues that play is a valuable means of facilitating learning because the act of playing encourages imagination, creativity and spontaneity which yet again is vital as children won’t be able to develop as learners and succeed in the future in my opinion without this opportunity to play no matter what form of play it is. Reeve defines Piaget assumption of play as a “process of assimilation of experiences through which a child reaches higher levels of cognitive development” (Reeve, 2012). Therefore I believe play should be considered a key factor in a child’s development and be highlighted as a key part of any school curriculum not just in Britain but around the world for all children to gain the best education.

Montessori

Montessori is a unique choice of life that parents make by sending their children to a Montessori school. In order to understand the Montessori approach to learning I believe it is highly important to understand its historical context. Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 and came from a conservative background as her father was in the military. Montessori had funded her own University studies and was the only women to enroll on a doctor’s course. Montessori worked in a psychiatric clinic in the University of Rome and this is where her Montessori theory kicked off where she was interested in helping children with various different levels of mental disability. She then attended the University of Rome to enroll in philosophy and anthropology  The in 1906 the first Montessori nursery was set up as she was invited to set-up a school in the slum district of Rome in San Lorenzo. There was no support given such as re sources of money there for she had to obtain all that her self (Isaacs, 2012) and I believe strongly that’s why the Montessori approach is such a popular one as the learning is all about the materials that are on offer in the environment that the children are in. This is a picture of the type of materials from the Montessori classrooms that have been structured and re shaped to a children's size:

Montessori according to Isaacs believed that children develop in different unique stages and that that is underlined in the organisation of the Montessori nursery's. The age group in my opinion is key to success of the Montessori schools because children are place in classrooms with children older than them for example 0-3 (the absorbent of mind)  age in one class that's referred to as the infant community and 3-6 referred to as nursery/kindergarten. Then from 6-9 (childhood) and then 9-12 (adolescence) which is key because children can develop by watching, communicating and learning of older children. These have sub divided into three and Montessori called them the sensitive period  (Isaacs, 2012). The characteristics of the Montessori schools is what draws me to applaud the Montessori approach. The key characteristics involve inter-graded curriculum, movement, teacher is the facilitator  respect, freedom of choice and individuality (Elementary, 2013). These characteristics are the perfect ingredients in my opinion to prepare a child to succeed in the future.

This video clip gives us an in sight into a Montessori classroom and a clear perspective of these characteristics in use for example movement; when the children are allowed to travel around the classroom exploring new activities  The children have their own freedom to choose and activity they wish to carry out. The video also shows us the inter-graded curriculum where maths is being taught by the materials they have to work with which is more creative perhaps I would argue than the national curriculum we have today. It also shows the children working independently by doing different activities such as the little boy who was shown sitting in a corner reading a book. This context of education in my opinion is considered to be one of he greatest and most influential to a child's development in terms of early years education from the 20 century carrying on into the 21^st century.

Foundation Phase

The foundation phase is an important aspect of a child's life as it sets them the foundations for the rest of their life. I believe strongly that if the child encounters a good childhood then the child will go on to be successful with in their education, that’s why in my opinion the foundation phase is and important aspect on education because of the importance of the role it plays with in a child's life.

“The Foundation Phase encourages children to be creative, imaginative and to have fun, making learning more enjoyable and more effective. Children are given opportunities to explore the world around them and understand how things work by taking part in practical activities that are relevant to their developmental stage” (Welsh Government, 2013).

The foundation phase came into legislation after the published document of ‘The Learning Country: Foundation Phase 3-7’. The welsh governments priorities came from the aims of the United Nations Convention of the Child (UNCRC) which passed through government in 2004. The big influential change which came about was the ‘seven areas of learning’    (Phillips, 2012). The aims of the government were simple that in order to create a future society were children  would be able to grow up and go into a work force with the correct skills in order to be successful. This idea was to move away from core subjects so that children could concentrate on the following:

·         Skills and understanding

·         Personal, social, emotional, physical and intellectual well- being so as to develop the whole child

·         Positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue

·         Self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form new relationships

·         Creative, expressive and observational skills to encourage their development as individuals with different ways of responding to experiences

·         Activities in the outdoors where they have first-hand experience of solving real-life problems and learn about conservation and sustainability.

(Welsh Government.  Retrieved 30, 03, 2013, from Foundation Phase) http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase/?lang=en

This in my opinion is a key document which has brought education forward because children are being given the opportunity to learn valuable skills to prepare them for the future where as the old curriculum in my opinion was not fulfilling their needs. My voluntary work has helped me gain a knowledge of the foundation phase first hand and I have seen a dramatic change in the educational system since I was in primary school myself and subjects such as mathematics are more practical therefor the children can see first hand how problems are solved and how important mathematics is and will be in their everyday lives. As part of my experience of being in a foundation phase classroom I was able to watch children and how they learn. I feel as if the foundation phase is fulfilling their needs for children with all sorts of abilities. 

This picture of a maths lesson sheet is showing the different color work groups and different grading of work which has been set for children with different abilities. This is a strong positive for the foundation phase as it is fulfilling its objective by fitting around everyone's abilities rather than peoples abilities fit to into the curriculum. 

Introduction & Bibliography

In this blog I shall be looking at four different contexts that I believe have a massive influence on 21^st century learning. The four contexts I have chosen are Play, Montessori, Key Stage/National Curriculum and the Foundation Phase. These four contexts are closely linked in my opinion as they’re a key aspect of 21^st century learning. Play has been under massive debate especially in America of recent about the usefulness and value of it with in children’s education and there for I will be looking at the importance of Play and the learning aspects that are developed from Play. Montessori is a different aspect of education and has developed and spread worldwide and therefor is an important aspect of education in the 21^st century because of its fast and influential development in the 20^th century. There are estimated to be 22000 Montessori nurseries across 100 different countries around the world (Background; The History of Montessori and MCI, 2012) and I believe strongly that the child’s development at a young age is important for their future. 

This leads me to my next topic which is key stage 2/National Curriculum. This part of a child’s education is the second most valuable in my opinion as children see that drastic change from key stage 2 to key stage 3 when they enter higher education. Therefor I shall be exploring key stage 2 and the importance of the type of development we expect to see from children at this age. I spend one day a week in a year 3 classroom contributing to voluntary work and this is exceptional experience as I can witness first-hand what key stage 2 is all about. This leads me to my final context I have chosen which is the foundation phase. I will be exploring how beneficial the foundation phase is to children’s education and how successful it is in fulfilling parents and their children’s needs.

Word Count: 2,192.

Bibliography

Background; The History of Montessori and MCI. (n.d.). Retrieved 04 15, 2013, from Montessori Centre International Distance Learning: http://distancelearning.montessori.org.uk/background/

BBC. (2007, 09). BBC . Retrieved 03 30, 2013, from The School Gate For Parents in Wales: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/schoolgate/aboutschool/content/curriculumprimary.shtml

Elementary, A. (n.d.). ACP Elementary. Retrieved 04 18, 2013, from A Childs Place: http://www.a-childs-place.com/characteristics.shtml

Elkind, D. (2007). The power of play: How spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children. . Cambridge: MA: Da Capo Press.

Isaacs, B. (2012). Understanding the Montessori Approach : Early Years Education in Practice 1st ed. London: Routledge.

Phillips, H. (2012). The Foundation Phase. 55-65.

Reeve, C. (2012). Play With Learning. Retrieved 04 23, 2013, from Play With Learning: http://playwithlearning.com/tag/vygotsky/

Sheridan, M. D., Harding, J., & Meldon-Smith, L. (2002). Play in Early Childhood : From Birth to Six Years. London: Routledge.

Tepperman, J. (2007). Play In The Early Years: Key To School Success. 1-8.

Welsh Goverment. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 30, 2013, from Foundation Phase: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/curriculuminwales/arevisedcurriculumforwales/foundationphase/;jsessionid=0B43E21BDFC368F8CF0DFD0A4559F86E?lang=en

Zigler, E., & Bishop-Josef, S. (2006). Zigler, E. & The cognitive child vs. the whole child: Lessons from 40 years of Head Start. USA: Yale University.