new comparative essay

Submitted By sunflower3
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Pages: 11

Foundation Degree (Arts) In Early Years
Practice (Hillingdon)

Curriculum Principles and Practice
Module HE 518 (2014)

CW1: Comparative essay

Word count 2006

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This comparative essay will compare, and contrast the early years curriculum in an EU and non-EU country. The countries that have been chosen are
England (EYFS) and USA’s HighScope. Secondary research was used to examine policy drivers, attitudes towards childhood, whether the provision is state, voluntary or independent and workforce and curriculum development.
The development and implementation of the EYFS and HighScope will also be evaluated.

In 1997New Labour (GOV.UK, 2008), came into power and their vision was to raise the incomes of the poorest families in the UK and also to eradicate child poverty (Piachaud and Holly, 2012). Additionally one development of this
Government was to remove the Nursery Voucher Scheme, which had been introduced by the previous Conservative government in 1995 and in 2000 a new early years curriculum appeared. Local Education Authorities and other early years services arranged local meetings to signify early years requirements and benefits and to organize local expansion plans (UK
Childcare policy and legisaltion , 2001). On October 31, 1997, the Department for Education and Employment set up a guidance document for Early Years
Development Partnerships and Plans.
Following on from this the Labour Party’s aim was to have the policy up and running by the following May (UK Childcare policy and legisaltion , 2001)They were successful and in May 1998 The National Policy for Early Years
Education and The National Childcare Strategy were launched. The aim of
The National Childcare Strategy was a proposal for good quality affordable childcare, for all children aged 0 to 14 years old (Legislation gov.uk, 2010).

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Labour’s intention was to empower all parents, in affording a return to work improvements to the education of all young people and to eliminate child poverty in the UK (Macleod-Brudenell and Kay, 2008).
Every Child Matters (education.gov.uk, 2003)came into force when The
Children Act 2004 became law(Legislation.Gov.UK, 2004), this set out to protect the well being of all children aged from 0-19 years old. Since 2003
The Every Child Matters agenda has been expanded further in December
2007 when the Children’s Plan was publicised. The Children’s Plan is a 10 yearlong Government strategy, which is aiming to improve children’s education and health(Legislation gov.uk, 2010).

Following on with the Ten Year Strategy, in 2005 the Government announced, that the Early Years Foundation Stage England (Ref), replaced all previous guidance, frameworks and standards for children 0-16 years. It acknowledged legal force through The Childcare Act 2006(Legislation.gov.uk, 2006), which was released it 2007 and became a statutory document in 2008. Therefore from September 2008 all early years providers who registered with Ofsted have had a duty to comply with this single document.
The Early Years Foundation Stage is a term defined in Section 39 of the
British government's Childcare Act 2006(Legislation.gov.uk, 2006), which sets the standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to 5. It builds on and will replace the existing statutory Curriculum Guidance for the
Foundation Stage, the non-statutory Birth to Three Matters framework, and the regulatory frameworks in the National Standards for Under 8s Day Care

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and Child-minding (Veale, 2012). It is a comprehensive framework that seeks to provide good quality and consistency in all early years settings, for every child to make steady progress and no child gets left behind (Tassoni's, 2012).
The Early Years Foundation stage framework is a statutory document and is fully funded by the government in England.The Early Years framework comprises of four themes with additional principles; a unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments