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\"An Introduction to the Foundation Phase provides a practical guide to understanding and implementing the Foundation Phase in any early years setting in Wales. The experienced author team discuss and reflect upon a play based approach to learning and the importance of collaboration between various members in any early years settings. Students are introduced to key topics including: key theories of influential thinkers within early years education, both past and present; international curricula and perspectives on play and how Welsh curriculum compares; effective classroom practice; observational techniques; methods of assessment and how to be a reflective practitioner. Through interviews with different stakeholders, including educational ministers, policy advisors, practitioners and parents, An Introduction to the Foundation Phase concludes by discussing the challenges and complexities of putting policy into practice and considers implications for the future of early years education. Making links between theory, policy and practice is vital for a future workforce and this core text provides a solid foundation for any student within early years. Illustrative case studies, activities, reflective tasks and suggestions for further reading are provided throughout. Online resources for lecturers and students are also included. \"-- Provided by publisher.

Background Participation in adequate levels of physical activity during the early years is important for health and development. We report the 6-month effects of an 18-month multicomponent intervention on physical activity in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings in low-income communities. Methods A cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted in 43 ECEC settings in disadvantaged areas of New South Wales, Australia. Three-year-old children were recruited and assessed in the first half of 2015 with follow-up 6 months later. The intervention was guided by Social Cognitive Theory and included five components. The primary outcome was minutes per hour in total physical activity during ECEC hours measured using Actigraph accelerometers. Intention-to-treat analysis of the primary outcome was conducted using a generalized linear mixed model. Results A total of 658 children were assessed at baseline. Of these, 558 (85%) had valid accelerometer data (mean age 3.38y, 52% boys) and 508 (77%) had valid accelerometry data at 6-month follow-up. Implementation of the intervention components ranged from 38 to 72%. There were no significant intervention effects on mins/hr. spent in physical activity (adjusted difference = − 0.17 mins/hr., 95% CI (− 1.30 to 0.97), p  = 0.78). A priori sub-group analyses showed a greater effect among overweight/obese children in the control group compared with the intervention group for mins/hr. of physical activity (2.35mins/hr., [0.28 to 4.43], p  = 0.036). Conclusions After six-months the Jump Start intervention had no effect on physical activity levels during ECEC. This was largely due to low levels of implementation. Increasing fidelity may result in higher levels of physical activity when outcomes are assessed at 18-months. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry   ACTRN12614000597695 .

The Foundation Phase is a Welsh Government flagship policy of early years education (for 3-7 year-old children) in Wales. Marking a radical departure from the more formal, competency-based approach associated with the previous Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, it advocates a developmental, experiential, play-based approach to teaching and learning. The learning country: A paving document (NAfW, 2001) notes that, following devolution, Wales intended to take its own policy direction in order to 'get the best for Wales'. Building on a three-year mixed methods independent evaluation of the Foundation Phase we discuss in detail the aims and objectives of the Foundation Phase, including the context to its introduction, the theory, assumptions and evidence underlying its rationale, and its content and key inputs. We then contrast this with how the Foundation Phase was received by practitioners and parents, how it has been implemented in classrooms and non-maintained settings, and what discernible impact it has had on young children's educational outcomes. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the policy process and identifies a number of contextual issues during the inception of the Foundation Phase that has, it could be argued, constrained its development and subsequent impact. We argue that these constraints are associated with an educational policy landscape that was still in its infancy. In order for future education policy to 'get the best for Wales' a number of important lessons must be learnt.

Background A substantial research base documents the benefits of attendance at high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) for positive behavioural and learning outcomes. Research has also found that the quality of many young children’s experiences and opportunities in ECEC depends on the skills, dispositions and understandings of the early childhood adult educators. Increasingly, research has shown that the quality of children’s interactions with educators and their peers, more than any other programme feature, influence what children learn and how they feel about learning. Hence, we sought to investigate the extent to which evidence-based professional development (PD) – focussed on promoting sustained shared thinking through quality interactions – could improve the quality of ECEC and, as a consequence, child outcomes. Methods/design The Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study is a cluster randomised controlled trial for evaluating the benefits of a professional development (PD) programme for early childhood educators, compared with no extra PD. Ninety long-day care and preschool centres in New South Wales, Australia, will be selected to ensure representation across National Quality Standards (NQS) ratings, location, centre type and socioeconomic areas. Participating centres will be randomly allocated to one of two groups, stratified by centre type and NQS rating: (1) an intervention group (45 centres) receiving a PD intervention or (2) a control group (45 centres) that continues engaging in typical classroom practice. Randomisation to these groups will occur after the collection of baseline environmental quality ratings. Primary outcomes, at the child level, will be two measures of language development: verbal comprehension and expressive vocabulary. Secondary outcomes at the child level will be measures of early numeracy, social development and self-regulation. Secondary outcomes at the ECEC room level will be measures of environmental quality derived from full-day observations. In all cases, data collectors will be blinded to group allocation. Discussion This is the first randomised controlled trial of a new approach to PD, which is focussed on activities previously found to be influential in children’s early language, numeracy, social and self-regulatory development. Results should inform practitioners, policy-makers and families of the value of specific professional development for early childhood educators. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN) identifier ACTRN12616000536460 . Registered on 27 April 2016. This trial was retrospectively registered, given the first participant (centre) had been enrolled at the time of registration.

Starting Strong ( 2001 ) and Starting Strong II (2006), the OECD Reports on early childhood education services in 20 countries, emphasized the need for governments to take steps to integrate early childhood education and care services: child care and kindergarten in particular. Integration has become a policy agenda that would meld the best of both worlds. It would increase the amount and quality of resources that are dedicated to out-of-home services for young children before school, ensure that these services are universally accessible as a right, and of low cost to parents, with stable employment for well-qualified staff able to implement a flexible, well-designed, play-based curriculum. In most countries with integrated systems, this has occurred under the aegis of education authorities, making it more likely that providers will be either public or not-for-profit agencies, dedicated to continual improvement in serving the interests of children rather than the objective of private gain. This paper compares Canadian developments in integration to those in Sweden, New Zealand, England and Wales. Context and history make the issues of integration somewhat different in Canada than in these countries. Overall, integration of early childhood education and care services in Canada is less developed than in Europe, but this paper reviews some promising recent reforms. In particular, the language of integration has been adopted widely by advocates, bureaucrats and some policy makers in Canada and a number of provinces have moved the administration and policy-making functions of child care services into the education ministry. However, Québec’s low-fee child care reforms are built upon a traditional split system of services. Ontario’s reforms of services for 4- and 5-year olds are very important, but partial. Prince Edward Island has planned a more fully integrated new early education system, but the transition has only recently begun. This paper analyses context, history and political factors that have shaped Canada’s experiences of integration until now.

Located differentially (and to its detriment) within a status hierarchy of knowledge, vocational education has been called upon to satisfy an increasing range of political and social needs, including meeting the needs of industry and government and catering for increasing pupil diversity. Faced with stubbornly immobile rates of school completion in Australia, policy makers have turned to vocational education and training to play a part in achieving higher rates of school completion or its 'equivalent'. This has been principally in the form of proposing alternative qualifications to the existing senior school certificates and increasing the role played by adult vocational education and training (VET) providers. This article considers the contribution of these various policy initiatives to progress in achieving school completion targets-focusing on current approaches to provision of vocational programmes (both in schools and in other providers), the equivalence of qualifications and the relative strength of non-school pathways. It questions the integrity of these 'alternative' measures of school completion and challenges the notion that VET, delivered within a secondary school subject paradigm, can produce the gains in participation required to reach these targets.

St. Mary's School in Bridgend is a pilot school for the new Foundation Phase. This programme looks at how they are encouraging creative development in their reception class. A key aspect of the Foundation Phase is lower adult to pupil ratios, 1-8 in nursery and reception. Teacher Jackie Davies, discusses how the support staff are there to help lead the learning. Nursery nurse Hayley Hitchings has a group of eight children for the Bear hunt activity in the classroom and outside.The children do lots of creative activities under the umbrella topic of Autumn. Jackie discusses the Foundation Phase planning and how detailed it must be so that lots of activities can happen at once.

The evidence presented in this paper suggests that exposure to pre-school experience has a significantly positive effect on the outcomes of the first two runs of the National Curriculum assessment results for seven year-olds. A hierarchical linear model (using ML3E software) enabled the evidence of this pre-school effect to be identified whilst taking into account the nested structure of the children within the class. The effect is over and above the positive advantage gained by age and social group and is consistently significant in all four subjects of reading, writing, number and science. Both nursery and playgroup experience have a positive effect on children's achievements when compared to non-attendance. The children with nursery experience came predominantly from the lower socio-economic groups while the children attending playgroup tended to be from the higher social groups. This paper suggests that it would be unwise to compare the results from children having nursery experience and those having playgroup experience since it is unreasonable to expect the educational opportunities for children in the lower socio-economic groups in a poorly resourced playgroup to be equivalent to those available in a better resourced nursery class.

Three principles are proposed for a new progressivism in primary school education. These establish the nature of individualism in education, the need to empower individuals through schooling, and an economy of means by which this can be achieved using progressivist methodology. The principles are worked out within a rational-humanist framework and assume a constructivist rather than a social-constructivist model of human development. It is suggested that progressive (or progressivist) axioms can benefit from their forced adaptation to a structured scheme such as the English/Welsh National Curriculum.