Early years in the uk context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Early years in the uk context - Essay Example The development and learning requirements only apply in England, but the welfare requirements are applicable to the entire United Kingdom schools (Department for Education, 2012). All the childcare providers, nurseries, child-minders, pre-school, and kindergartens are obliged to be registered through the Childcare Act so as to legally operate. To remain registered, they have to comply with the Learning and Development (in England), and Welfare requirements (for the entire U.K) except where exempted (Department for Education, 2013). Learning and development (L&D) are requirements with a legal force given by the 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage (Learning and Development Requirements) amendment order, under Section 39(1)(a) of the 2006 Childcare Act. The Welfare and Safeguarding requirements got their legal force from the 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations, under Section 39(1)(b) of the 2006 Childcare Act. The 2006 Childcare Act allows the Secretary of State to give exemptions from the development and learning framework under certain circumstances, under Section 46 (Department for Education, 2012). Early childhood education and care for young emerged in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first U.K nursery school was established by Robert Owen in 1816 at New Lanark, Scotland for mill workers’ children. ... In the process, he strived to create the future citizen via a process of physical activities and informal teaching. Even though, his ideas were way ahead of time, this example established significant interest in the area of early childhood education. This followed the founding of infant schools across the United Kingdom (Kwon, 2002). The Education Act was passed in 1870, establishing compulsory elementary schooling for any child from 5 years of age. Elementary education was made compulsory for children between 5 and 13years of age in 1880 (The Scottish Government, 2011). In the absence of schools or institutions specialized for the younger children, the elementary ones were made to admit children below the age of five so as to protect them from the unhealthy and poor physical conditions in slums and the dangerous streets (TES Magazine, 2012). Five female inspectors from the Education Board investigated the admission of infants in U.K elementary schools and their instructing curriculu m in 1905. They reported the inappropriateness and recommended that all the children below five years should have separate facilities with a different approach of teaching from the older children (The Scottish Government, 2011). They criticized rote memorization and the monotonous emphasis on repetition in the curriculum for elementary schools. As a result of this report, all children under the age of five were excluded from the elementary schools, officially (Kwon, 2002). By the mid 20th century, the family size had declined with the closure of day nurseries reducing the opportunities for children to interact and play with each other. Playgroups were, therefore, included as a new preschool provision. In 1972, Secretary of State for Education, Margaret Thatcher, presented an education