This week's assignment had me thoroughly searching the http://www.early-education.org.uk site. In looking deeper into the site, I found links to educational policy standpoints in England, Northern Ireland, Scottland and Wales. Each link leads to a resource for the country on their viewpoint of the progress and barriers of early childhood education. I chose to further delve into the England document. I found that they have 4 guiding principles that are very much in line with what we have been learning thus far in our coursework. They speak to the importance of relationships, recognizing each child as an individual, the components of an effective environment and how learning and development are inter-related. Several other links are embedded into the document such as the direct link to the agency that certifies facilities.
While this site does not offer a free newsletter, they do offer a subscription to their magazine that is published 3x per year called "Early Education". Archived issues are stored within their archives. They also offer a variety of free downloadable pamphlets. One that I found enlightening was on the topics of babies and how they learn on their first day. I recently attended a training that was on high quality infant/toddler environments and the trainer lacked supporting documentation on the topic. This pamphlet would have been useful to connect her presentation with supporting documents.
In correlation with awareness, accessibility and affordability, England tends to struggle as much as the United States in eliminating these barriers for families. England strives to provide free nursery school for 3 and 4 year olds for 15 hours, yet the connection with funding such a program and childhood outcomes has not been made. The following is a link to the site that further explains these issues:
http://www.nao.org.uk/report/delivering-the-free-entitlement-to-education-for-three-and-four-year-olds/ In researching this site, I have made the realization that the US is not alone in the fight for funding in supporting early childhood education. It appears we all need the money to support children and families, but this need has forced educators to put additional stresses on children to prove they are worth the money. I wish there was another way to fund our future than relying on others to do so.
WOW, Arlene, I would had never thought of England or the UK because I read they encourage for parents to take off from work the first year from work and are very big on day care in England. Great news
ReplyDeleteYour statement about proving that children are worth the funding really made me stop and think. The fact that that can be said about funding for early childhood education is a shame. I am glad to read that other countries understand the important basics of early education like the importance of relationships, the components of effective environment and how learning and development are inter-related. Great post Arlene!
ReplyDeleteI love reading about other countries putting effort and money into early childhood education. I do not think that a lot of people understand the importance of having quality early childhood education. The world spends so much money on frivolous on things when our children need a quality education beginning at a young age. Thanks for sharing.
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