Proposals for a new early-years curriculum for 0-5 years-olds in England has been announced by the UK government. The proposals claim to offer a “slimmed down curriculum” for 0-5-year-olds, a focus on “getting children ready for school” and plan to create more “flexibility” for parents in their entitlement to free childcare.

Last year the government asked Dame Clare Tickell, Chief Executive of Action for Children, to carry out an independent review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), to consider how this could be less bureaucratic and more focused on supporting children’s early learning. The government has accepted many of the recomendations and is proposing to develop a new, slimmed down early-years curriculum for 0-5-year-olds from September 2012.

Children’s Minister Sarah Teather announced that, in response to the review, the new framework would reduce the number of early learning goals from 69 to 17.

Parents will also get clearer information on how their children are doing with the introduction of a new progress check for every two-year-old in early education. In a statement the Department for Education says the changes will mean that, “parents and professionals can be confident children are developing well and any problems will be picked up early.”

As part of wider reforms to early learning, the government is looking at ways to get parents and communities more involved in running children’s centres. The government claims that the new plans to be consulted on will “make it easier for parents to plan and balance their working lives by making the free entitlement to 15 hours of early learning and childcare more flexible.”

Children’s Minister Sarah Teather commented on the proposals, “The first five years of a child’s life, the foundation years, are absolutely critical. We want a system where every child can thrive, regardless of their social background. If we are to tackle the attainment gap and raise life chances, we must start in the earliest years.”

“We know experiences in these first years have the biggest impact on how a child’s brain develops. It’s when children grasp the fundamental skills needed to do well at school and develop as happy, confident individuals.”

The key proposals include:

• A new focus on three prime areas of learning in the EYFS with the aim that children are ready and able to learn at school. These areas are: personal, social and emotional development, physical development and communication and language.
• A slimmed down EYFS, cutting the number of learning goals from 69-17. The learning goals will be more closely aligned with Key Stage 1 to smooth the transition from reception class to Year 1.
• Assessment at age five will remain but instead of the current scale point assessment children will be judged against 17 learning goals.
• A new check for every two-year-old in pre-school settings to pick up early any problems in a child’s development or special educational needs. Tthe Government will require all early years settings to provide this information to parents.
• New plans, to be consulted on in the autumn, to enable parents to access their free entitlement hours from 7am-7pm, and take the full 15 hours over two days rather than a minimum of three days.
• Exploring how the government can find new ways of running children’s centres, such as ‘mutuals’ and co-operative approaches, so that “parents and communities can be more involved in local decision making and services.”
• New requirement on all local authorities to publish data on how much they are spending on children’s centres in their area with the aim of improving local accountability.