Thanks to Steve Philp for sharing this interpretation of the draft Early Years Foundation Stage Framework which will be implemented from September 2012 and until the end of this September is under public consultation.
I have a pretty close understanding of the EYFS after spending some time in that age group and getting through a county profile moderation. It is interesting to see the intention to slim the framework down. From the Department for Education
A new, slimmed down early years curriculum for 0-5-year-olds, more focused on making sure children start school ready and able to learn, will be introduced next year under changes set out today by Children’s Minister Sarah Teather.
Responding to the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), the new framework radically reduces the number of early learning goals from 69 to 17. It focuses on three prime areas of learning critical to making sure children develop healthily and happily. These areas form the foundations on which children can then master the basic literacy skills they need for school.
Steve’s Wordle interpretation cuts through the gloss and acts as a good simple look at the language used which does help for us to see the overall theme or language trend. At my previous school the headteacher got into the habit of running policies and other planning documents through a Wordle to quickly look at the main focus on the piece.
As Steve Philp points out with regard to the below image – Interesting that ‘children’ and ‘must’ are the two biggest words…
I am not so surprised “children” appears so large, but the word “must” feels a bit odd in this context, and seems largely out of place. I’d be really interested in your reactions and those of current early years teachers to the proposed changes and to the Wordle itself and what it implies about the language and phrasing contained within it – why not leave a comment.