Young babies under five will be assessed on their “crying, gurgling, babbling and squealing”
March 13th, 2007Staff in every nursery in England will monitor children from birth on their progress towards a set of 69 Government “early learning goals”. These goals cover the skill levels expected of five-year-olds in reading, writing and rudimentary maths.
Parents’ groups attacked the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, which will be a legal requirement for all childminders and children’s centres from September 2008.
Margaret Morrissey, from the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: “I think it’s really sad that we have reached the point now where instead of reducing children’s stress we have increased it.
“Will nurseries be worrying more about children reaching these targets than caring for our children?
“It worries me that we are expecting children to reach these targets when they have not even had their first birthday.”
The Department for Education published practice guidance alongside the curriculum document, detailing how childcare staff should assess the progress children make at different ages.
Babies from the age of birth to 11 months should be assessed for “the different ways babies communicate – such as gurgling when happy”, the guidance said.
At this age, babies “communicate in a variety of ways including crying, gurgling, babbling and squealing”.
Staff were advised to record how babies under 11 months old “begin to explore their own movements”, mimic adults’ facial expressions and “gaze” at things that interest them.
Under the section dealing with learning to write, babies between birth and 11 months should be observed for the “random marks” they make in their food, the guidance said.
To help develop the early numeracy skills of babies under 11 months, nurseries should display toys and objects like fir cones or shells in small groups and as single items.
Staff should then record “the attention that young babies give to changes in the quantity of objects or images they see, hear or experience.” […]
I am not making this up, obviously.
These are the insane people who want to control every aspect of life from the cradle to the grave, starting with how often you, “goo goo, gaa gaa” as an infant.
And that is completely GA GA.
One comment on this site says it all:
Moral: don’t put your baby in a nursery; look after it yourself. If you can’t do that, it probably means you shouldn’t have had the poor mite in the first place.
– Jane, Preston, England.
Amen.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Quite apart from anything else, since when were nursery staff trained to be behavioural psychologists’, and what ‘authority’ could they possibly bring to their ‘evaluations’?
the
March 26th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Children who spend a lot of time in nursery are more likely to be aggressive and disobedient throughout primary school – no matter how excellent the nursery, according to study published today.
Telegraph