1.
Dr Julian Grenier
grenier@outlook.com
@juliangrenier
An early years
curriculum that provides
opportunities for
children to thrive

2.
What I’ll
be
speaking
about
Some of the challenges
Language and communication are
central
Knowing more and remembering
more
Thinking about self-regulation,
resilience and working with parents
Curriculum design

3.
What I’ll
be
speaking
about
Some of the
challenges

4.
• Despite some positive progress in
closing attainment gaps, we know
that they start early, and they grow
wider
• ‘At current trends, we estimate that
it would take around 50 years for
the disadvantage gap to close
completely by the time pupils take
their GCSEs’
• https://epi.org.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2017/08/Closing-
the-Gap_EPI-.pdf

5.
Early Years
Foundation
Stage Profile
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Percentagegap
Year
Gap between children eligible for free
school meals and all others at the end of
the EYFS

6.
Reading difficulties
• ‘about 15% of the adult population in
OECD countries have not mastered the
basics, being unable, for example, to fully
understand instructions on a bottle of
aspirin. These literacy problems are
especially serious in England where
younger adults perform no better than
older ones (Kuczera et al., 2016).’
• Cited in Machin et al 2016,
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/machin/pdf/sm
%20sm%20mv%20april%202016.pdf

7.
Falling behind
in maths
• In 2018, just 66% of disadvantaged
children achieved at least the expected level
of development for number at the end of
the Early Years Foundation Stage compared
to 82% of their peers. Once children fall
behind, it is hard for them to catch up and
they are likely to fall further behind
throughout school.
• Prof Becky Francis, Chief Executive,
Education Endowment Foundation

8.
Falling proportion of level 3 qualified staff
(NDNA report, 2019)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19
Proportion of Level 3 qualified staff
Level 3

9.
Staff turnover
• Staff turnover is now running at 24% in the
early years
• Some providers say they are struggling
financially
• Some staff say they will be rewarded better
in retail jobs
• (NDNA report, 2019)

10.
Staff mental
health
Mind Matters survey by the Early Years Alliance:
25% considering leaving the early years sector due to stress of
mental health difficulties
66% say their personal relationships have been negatively
affected by work-related stress or mental health difficulties over
the last year
Top four sources of stress - administration and paperwork,
financial resources of the setting, workload and pay
Early Years Alliance Minds Matter

11.
What I’ll
be
speaking
about
Language and
communication
are central

12.
It’s not just words
EXPERIENCES CONVERSATIONS

13.
[video clip from Siren Films not available online]

14.
It’s not just words
The number of ‘conversational turns’ parents have with children
aged 18-24 months is a stronger predictor of verbal
comprehension and vocabulary 10 years later than the total
number of words spoken, even after controlling for
socioeconomic status.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/4/e20174276

15.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/06/01/615188051/lets-stop-talking-about-the-
30-million-word-gap?t=1575013595138

16.
What I’ll
be
speaking
about
Knowing
more and
remembering
more

17.
Cognitive load theory
• Health warning:
• Little-research relates to children in
the early years or younger primary
pupils, except with respect to
beginner readers.

18.
Long term memory
‘Long-term memory consists of a
range of schemata. These are
complex structures that link
knowledge, create meaning and
allow skills to be performed.
They are built up over time.’
Professor Daniel Muijs, Ofsted’s
head of research
• Children are not ‘empty
buckets’ needing to be filled
up with knowledge.
• It’s more helpful to think of
children being able retrieve
things quickly from their
long-term memory
• Once you know some
things, it’s easier to learn
more.

19.
Helpful examples?
• Learning to drive
• Becoming more fluent at using apps on your
computer
• Learning a new language

20.
Short-term memory
• Before information
enters long-term
memory, it needs to be
processed by the
short-term or working
memory. This has
limited capacity.’
Professor Daniel Muijs,
Ofsted’s head of research

21.
7 – 5 – 1 – 3

22.
4 – 7 – 9 – 8 – 8 – 0 – 7 – 3 - 2

23.
The cat sat on the mat

24.
Why?
Is it hard to remember the
sequence of 9 digits but
easy to remember the
sequence of 17 letters?

25.
Long-term memory consists of a range of schemata.
These are complex structures that link knowledge, create
meaning and allow skills to be performed. They are built
up over time.
Learning is about developing those schemata through
acquiring knowledge and making connections with
different schemata. However, before information enters
long-term memory, it needs to be processed by the
short-term or working memory. This has limited capacity.
It is not able to retain knowledge or develop schemata if
it is overloaded i.e. if we are given too many things to
think about at once.
However, CLT is not about minimising cognitive load. It is
about not exceeding the cognitive load that people can
deal with. Deep learning requires cognitive load (learning
is hard!), but it must be relevant to the task and help
rather than hinder learning.
Professor Daniel Muijs, Ofsted’s head of research

26.
Knowledge is ‘sticky’
Once you know some things, it’s easier to know more

27.
Thinking through
an example:
trikes, scooters
and bikes

28.
Working
memory and
long term
memory
Can we think of riding
wheeled toys in terms of
knowing more and
remembering more?

29.
Thinking through another example: handwriting

30.
Thinking through another example: handwriting

31.
Handwriting in
the 2008 EYFS

32.
What I’ll
be
speaking
about
Thinking
about self-
regulation,
resilience
and working
with parents

33.
Play is
important
“There is good evidence
that being involved in
imaginative play either
with an adult, or with
other children, is
advantageous in terms
of young children’s
language development.”
Professor David
Whitebread, University
of Cambridge

34.
Pretend play
• Pretend play helps children to develop their understanding of
their own thinking, the understanding of others, and to co-
operate (and control their impulses)
• David Whitebread: self-regulation, in some ways, is the
strongest predictor of success. If you can regulate your
attention at four, you are more likely to do well in school and
go onto university.

35.
Some key points
Executive function
includes the child’s ability
to:
• hold information in
mind
• focus attention
• control behaviour
• plan what to do next

36.
Some key points
• Language development
and pretend play are
central to these skills,
which are essential for
successful early
learning.
• The key time for these
developments is from
birth to seven years
old.

37.
Some key points
These abilities contribute to the child’s
growing ability to self-regulate:
• focus thinking
• monitor what they are doing and adapt
• control strong feelings
• be patient for what they want
• bounce back when things get difficult

38.
Settling in
and the
key
person
approach
Resilience
David et al. (2003, p.20) describe resilience as the
extent to which ‘some children are able to
overcome the effects of negative events or
experiences’. In their review of the literature
David et al. concluded that a key factor enabling
children to overcome adversity and challenging
life situations was the presence of at least one
‘very nurturing relationship’ (2003 p.23).
Security of attachment has been linked to the
child’s developing, and ultimate, sense of self
(worth) and in particular to the important
concept of resilience.

39.
Resilience
• Talking about emotions can
help children learn to
manage their feelings and
develop their social
behaviour
• Approaches include:
• Using emotion icons to
help children to match how
they are feeling inside,
with a picture and then a
word (happy, sad, angry)
• Helping children to
elaborate: ‘are you feeling
sad because you wanted
that?’ – ‘do you feel angry
because she pushed you?’

40.
Sensitive interaction between a child and their caregivers is particularly crucial for
children who are high in negative emotionality.
When practitioners respond in harsh on controlling ways, that doesn’t help
children to develop pro-social behaviour. It increases the risk of anti-social and
aggressive behaviour.
This risk is especially high for boys in disadvantaged circumstances.
We need to respond consistently and sympathetically to children high in negative
emotionality, so that they learn pro-social behaviour. We need to avoid using
harsh or over-directing strategies.

41.
Balancing responsiveness
and routines
Emotional warmth is especially powerful when it is genuinely
responsive to the child’s own emotions.
Routine, familiarity and the presence of caring adults are
vital for children in nursery settings
Laible and Thompson (2007) - the importance of a warm and
mutually responsive relationship with adults and the
importance of structure for young children ‘who are seeking
predictability and control to everyday experience’ (p.194).

42.
Working with
parents
• Girls get more support for
learning at home than boys
• Typically, but not always, children
from more affluent homes have a
better HLE
• Most schools say that they do not
have an explicit plan for how they
work with parents
• Fewer than 10% of teachers have
undertaken CPD on parental
engagement.

43.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/preparing-for-
literacy/

44.
What I’ll
be
speaking
about
Curriculum
design

45.
Ticking things off
• ‘Many of the teachers
devised tasks simply to
tick off elements of
the early learning goals
so that they could
provide evidence of
children’s
achievement. By
default, these tasks –
and ticking them off –
became the Reception
curriculum, with a
significant loss of focus
on learning, step by
step.’
• Ofsted, Bold
Beginnings, 2017

46.
Breaking that down
• Tasks devised just to
tick off bands in
Development Matters
or the ELGs?
• A focus on collecting
evidence?
• A loss of learning step
by step?
• Always thinking about
children’s ‘next steps’

47.
The big picture
• Ordering and sequencing
• Strong foundations: does it stand together?
• Why this? Why now?

48.
Some key points
• Planning how you will help every child to
develop their language is vital.
• Young children’s learning is often driven by
their interests. Plans need to be flexible.
• Babies and young children do not develop in a
fixed way. Their development is like a spider’s
web with many strands, not a straight line.
• Depth in early learning is much more important
than covering lots of things in a superficial way.

49.
Some key points
• Babies and young children do not develop in
a fixed way. Their development is like a
spider’s web with many strands, not a
straight line.
• Staff need regular support and high-quality
professional development to support this

50.
• How high-quality interactions extend children’s
development
• The relevance of self-regulation to children’s
educational success
• The links between early language development and
later literacy
• Mathematical and scientific concept development in
the early years
• Ways to use observation, assessment of practice and
planning to improve quality
• The importance of early home learning and
connections across ECEC settings and the home
learning environment
• The relevance of leadership for learning for children’s
development and ways to improve it

51.
‘The child must have the opportunity to be as well as become.’
Philip Gammage (2003)

52.
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