One of the articles I found was written in the Telegraph by
their education editor, Graeme Paten. Title being ‘Summer-born children ‘lag
behind at school’. This article clearly states that the summer born children struggle
to catch up to the others. So surely pro-longing this process more, by having
the younger children of the year start later is making this worst to begin
their academic journey. It talks about they are more likely to be bullied and
have learning difficulties than the older children. By big issue with this fact
is where is the justifying in what the government has put in place to ensure
this isn’t the case. There is no good in writing these points and not giving
solutions. It goes on to talk about the younger ones less likely to get
a-levels, join 6th form or attend university again this is another
issue that I want to know is in place to make sure that it isn’t the case. Is it
because children fall behind, is it because children have a hard time
through-out their school? Is it confidence? It talks about a debate for the
best way to educate summer born children. Apparently the discussion was about
making children all 4 so it is earlier and they have longer to master the
basics but academics warned that children being pushed too early before there
ready can be negative. My thoughts on this immediately are yes maybe our children
should come to school to learn the basics but surely it has to be basic. Many nurseries
and children centres were some children are younger than 4 it isn’t just basics
they are being pushed to learn learn learn as setting have to follow the EYFS
but this is surely the problem why can’t it be all play and they start to learn
and follow routine after a year of ‘play’.
The next article I like was a BBC News one and it was named ‘is
five too soon to start school’? This talks about English children go through a
fixed curriculum whilst other European countries their children at the age of 5
are still playing at home. From what I have read I believe that there have been
previous studies into if an early start has an advantage but like said before
there seems to be no answers.
"The assumption that an early
starting age is beneficial for children's later attainment is not well
supported in the research and therefore remains open to question," report
says.
this quote really makes me excited for my inquiry as it
supports my points and views that’ there is not a definite reason as to why the
UK do it different to any other country, I go on..
This article interestingly talks about out reason being in
our history which a college as mentioned to me once before. It says it was for
protection for our children in the Victorian times and if a child started early
they could leave early and get a job. This has completely changed now as a
child starts so young and can carry on consecutive learning until the age of
21+. So have they really thought about starting later to finish later?
It also discus’s that children have less time with their
families than other countries does this affect them long term?
These were 3 bits of literature on my inquiry topic that stood
out to me and many link to my ideas as discussed before. They are 3 main points
which I will use for module 3 and will carry on finding more literature on my
topic.