Ages

Starting age of schools in different countries

 I looked up different countries and the age children can attend pre school or primary school. This is not legally it's the age they are entitled to start if needed and wanted.

Age 3- 3 countries

Age 4- 5 countries

Age 5- 3 countries

Age 6- 11 countries

Age 7- 3 countires

Interestingly most countries start from year one. Which to me and what this country are so used to having children attend pre-school seems crazy. We have a whole different curriculm in reception and nursery, the foundation stage which in these 11 countries doesn’t exist.  I am interested in knowing if anyone’s background is in another country and were schooled in another country I would really appreciate a brief encounter onto your thoughts?

More Research

 

In 2009 the school secretary Ed Balls felt he was changing the opportunities for the summer babies. Rather than them starting in January or April they have the chance to start in September just like the winter babies. This however is in my place at my school but my only doubt is like discussed in the last blog a 5 week settling process and the younger children’s being shortened is this then a problem. Some children have been to nursery or a children’s centre previous to going to school and some haven’t. My question is would that be another thought on a category to settle the children in? I will be discussing my thoughts with teachers across the school.

As I started to research into ages children start school I came across an article from May 2012 talking about how they should raise the age to 6 in the UK. This is interesting to me as most people I have questioned about this really think it's a positive thing for them to start at an early age. People were all for children going to nursery. But if you have a read of this it gives a complete different outlook on childrens education.
This really is extreme..............


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2145136/School-starting-age-raised-to-prevent-long-term-damage-brighter-children.html

The start of the researching

After having a long think about this module and the lines of inquiry it really stuck out to me that I am interested and passionate about the effects it has on a child depending on the age they start at. As I am working in reception my year group is a prime example of how children start at different times. We have the oldest children who are born in the early quartile of the year the start one week earlier for just a morning. The following week the oldest just do the morning again and the youngest who are born in the later quartile the do the afternoon. The third week into the term the youngest children they just do the morning now and the oldest they do all day up untill two. The fourth week the youngest stay untill two and the oldest they do full day. Then finally in the fifth week of term they all do full time depending on if they are ready and settled. I mean is this fair? Does sit mean to say the younger ones aren't as ready? Does this have an effect on they schooling throughout their first year? Does this then have a knock on effect later on?

This is just in my practise I wonder if anyone knows of any different processes or what they know works best of the children.............

Task 4a Reflection on the questionnaire

To sum up my questionnaire I really needed to analyse and conclude my research which is what I will look at first.

After questioning different people on my questions it was interesting to see that some people came up with similar answers and one of them would work in a school and one was a builder. I wonder whether they weren’t deep enough or whether they were too closed. I would love people to sit and analyse their answer for me so it could back up their opinion.  There is no right or wrong in any of the questions yet all people’s answers are right to me.

When giving people my questionnaire I realised many of my questions were difficult to analyse if you did not work in a school or have experience with children and education. My questions were quite biased to how I feel, almost like I thought people would agree with me which to some extent they did. Most of my questions were about different things which I am keen on. I think I could look into each question sepratly and further it.

For example….

Q1. I could go on to question, when is the right time for children to start school and why do you think this?

Q2. On the thoughts about nursery I could ask, do you think there are any other negatives about children not attending nursery?

Q3. Obviously nursery s there for children to learn, so what do you think is the most important to learn at the age of 3?

Q4. Inclusion is so big so I could ask, what does inclusion mean to you?

Q5. I would just ask to give reasons on why it benefits them.

Q6. To be honest this was not a strong question and was one I would take out!

So this is my reflection on my process of my questionnaire and I shall now go away and think of what my answers are.

Task 4a

These are my questions that I shall be asking other people on thier views. I will be more than grateful if my fellow students could post onto here your views, answers and just some general feed back. Once I have put out a questionaire I will blog the outcomes and my reflection on this.


1. In the UK children legally have to attend school from their fifth birthday, in other countires it is six or seven. Do you feel five is too young to attend full time education?


2. Do you feel that children who go to school at the age of 5 without attending nursery miss an important social interactive learning experience?


3. Do you think children being taught phonics at the age of 3 is beneficial for their future learning?


4. Do you feel schools are as inclusive as they say they can be?


5. Alot of reception and nusery children are taught through child intiated play and also adult led activities. Which do you feel has more of an impact on their learning?


6. Many schools now have a teaching assistant aswell as the class teacher. Do you feel they are as important as each other?

Comenius trip

I am aware that I have n ot blogged in a while i've been busy enjoying my six weeks off :) but as the holidays are coming to an end I think it's time to get back into blogging and working.

Back in June I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go on what is called a comenius trip to Hungary. This was to see how their culture is and how their education is. When arriving into budapest we found out we had a 6 hour coach journey to our hotel, so yes everything was miles apart!! during our visit we went to their pre school and primary school. Many things were different to our education system, they do not where uniform they have shorter days. their reception class have naps!! It was delightful to say the least. Their lunch was delivered from school to school all cooked in one kitchen. The pre school had two classes of about 15 children in. also during the visit we was lucky enough to see some hungarian dancing and join in. It was indeed a great experience and I do hope to go on many more of these.