It has lots of good ideas and is full of reflective questions to help examine provision. It’s a shame that its subtitle refers to ‘Strengthening the provision for gifted and talented children in the Early Years’  because really it’s about good practice generally.

No doubt today’s article from the BBC website will be the first of many in the coming weeks.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, their findings suggest that child initiated activities are used less often in Reception than in other settings and that although practitioners say they plan for, deliver and assess a balance of provision across the six areas, in practice there is a tendency for some areas to be given greater prominence.

Reception teachers were found to be giving greater time to CLLD and PSRN as a result of both external and school based pressures and the requirements of OFSTED were seen by practitioners as having a particularly detrimental effect on provision.

There is a review of the EYFS planned in 2010 which is seen as an opportunity to explore issues raised by practitioners. It should include ensuring ‘the right balance’ is struck between consistent national standards and flexibility to meet children’s needs and clarification of the different forms and levels of guidance about accountability and statutory requirements.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of such a review.

I remember the song as a poem. It’s about a boy who goes to paint flowers in rainbow colours and his teacher tells him that flowers are red and green and that’s how they’re done. She instills this in him until he internalises it enough so that when he joins another class and the teacher gives him rainbow colours to draw flowers he uses only red and green, because that’s how it is. I came home and downloaded it from itunes, glad to make it more than just a memory that has stayed with me for decades.

Then, a chance remark on the radio this morning about Germaine Greer’s book ‘The Female Eunuch’ led my husband to pass comment on his memories of my bookshelf when we first met thirty-three years ago. Greer’s book was one of three he found there that he remembers striking him at the time. The other two were Paulo Freire’s ’Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ and a book by Che Guevara on guerilla warfare. Two of these have been lost long ago but I still read Ferire’s work and now have a small collection of his books.

All are influences from the past that have stayed with me over the years. I wonder what will stay with the next generations and how it’s shaping their thinking?

It’s a familiar area for me as I deliver a course on environments for learning and one of the things I ask educators to ask themselves is “What can they learn outside that wouldn’t be the same if it was inside?”.

So, at the staff meeting last night, we all went outside to look at the outdoor area with a more critical eye. All the things that are put out normally had been put away and we were able to look at the area in its natural state.

It is a lovely area with some beautiful trees, grassed areas as well as other safe surfaces, a great little mini gym area with wooden balancing stumps and a swinging bridge as well as a small football area with a goal to shoot at.

Each of us had a clip board and fifteen minutes to make notes. After that we went through them all and as we talked people would often say “Oh yes we used to do that” or “That’s right, remember when we did that”.

Mostly I think the staff had got so used to ‘setting up’ outside they’d forgotten what a wonderful resource it was all on its own.

That very day the children had all planted a bean seed (inside in a plastic cup) when what we really need is a vegetable garden to tend and care for. We talked about a performance area as we don’t have a lot of space inside and it would be lovely to have a mini amphitheatre. We considered introducing more natural materials, stones and large pebbles so that the children could make compositions which could be left in situ like Andy Goldsworthy‘s sculptures and we thought about the possibilities with the large hollow blocks and crates for large-scale construction.

One  comment made by a staff member was “But we were told that’s what we needed to do, make sure we provided for all six areas outside…”.

Well it is, but we do need to remember the we should start from what’s outside and what might interest the children about it rather than just moving the inside out.

There is a consultation document out at the moment and the proposals include the SIP  supporting schools across all the ECM outcomes rather than the current narrower focus on achievement. They are also looking at Sip’s becoming the “‘main agent” on performance challenge between schools and their local authority as well as brokering school improvement support.

It seems to be that the support provided will come from accredited organizations. Should make the role even more interesting!

If you want to get involved in the consultation visit the website here:

www.nationalcollege.org.uk/sipsconsultation-questionnaire