Blog Assignment: Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

I am happy that I did have the opportunity with connecting with someone out of the country. Chris Hussy from Early Education in London has shared with me a lot of information. it is amazing to see that we are facing a lot of the same issue in the early childhood field. He talked about one of the biggest issues in London is excellence and equity is at the center of things at this point in time.  He provided a lot of websites that provided a lot of different information: 

 

http://www.daynurseries.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/26/Debate-should-early-years-teachers-have-qualifed-teacher-status

http://sheila-nutkins-author.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/debate-about-ratios-and-qualifications.html

In addition, the regulator Ofsted has come under increasing fire for standardisation issues:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24079951

http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/article/1214950/exclusive-ofsted-responds-big-conversation

And more recently, ‘school readiness’ has been at the forefront of agendas:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10307682/Failure-to-acknowledge-the-concept-of-readiness-in-education-this-is-the-tragedy.html

http://edfaclib.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/guest-blog-post-too-much-too-soon-school-starting-age-the-evidence-3/

Finally – issues over improving the quality within the state sector and comparison to both PISA and other measurements:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10317154/Good-school-bad-school-what-do-we-measure-this-by.html

Poverty is another issue that was discussed was poverty.

http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/families/childpoverty

In addition, this suggests ways in which this may implemented practically:

http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/families/childpoverty/sharinggoodpractice

   

This is some dialog between us both learning about one another and the EC field in his country:

 

Can you tell me more about your Early Education Program??

Early years education is generally seen as being from 2 to 8 years of age, although we as an organisation support birth to eight and above! Formalised education takes place either with childminders, or in nursery/kindergarten equivalents of various types, before children normally move into mainstream schooling in England at either age 4 or 5. There is an emphasis (in the main) on play and creativity, but also through the developmental stage that a child may undertake, and in turn, preparing them for school too.

How does the Education System Work in the U.K.?

Parents typically may send their children to a nursery or equivalent before formal school starts, this is often a sort of day care. Thereafter, schooling is compulsory from age 4/5 depending upon when their birthday falls – and such education is compulsory until the age of 18, unless there is adequate provision outside of a school environment. There are now many different types of school, depending upon the area, and there are both state and independent schools, which are either free to attend or fee paying.

What are some of the issues/trends that you all are facing with Early Education in the UK??

There are typically many issues, mostly centred on funding and adequate provision of both places and high quality teaching and learning. In recent time, the focus has been on 2 year olds. Interestingly now debate centres on what qualifications are required to teach within such schools and looking to make early years education more robust in this regard. Inevitably, there will be issues involving the other social and cultural factors that impinge on schools everywhere, such as inequality, that serve as barriers to success.

Even though My connect still has not emailed me back yet for this week I wanted to share the information that we have exchanged with you. Overall I leaned that we are facing some of the same issue in the Early Childhood filed. It goes to show how much in common you have with a person from another part of the world.I though it was interesting to learn that both here and in London we are dealing with the issues of poverty, funding, and quality programing.