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Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Foundation Phase...


What is the foundation phase?

The foundation phase is a document put in place by the wales government which provides children between the ages of 3 and 7 the opportunities to learn holistically rather than subject specific. The foundation phase document teaches children that skills learnt in particular subjects do not have to stay within those subjects. For example children may use a adding and subtracting in mathematics but they may also need it in geography, science and history. The foundation phase promotes practitioners to teach themes in education rather than subjects and topics.  

The foundation phase is divided up into 7 categories which practitioners use as a guide to ensure that children have a holistic and broad education. These categorises are:

·         Mathematical development

·         Personal and Social Development, Well-Being and Cultural Diversity

·         Language, Literacy and Communication Skills

·         Welsh Language Development

·         Knowledge and Understanding of the World

·         Physical Development

·         Creative Development.

Foundation phase framework (2008)
 How does the foundation phase help development?

From personal experience the foundation phase helps children’s development as it allows children to explore, be creative, use their imagination and have fun in a loosely structured but controlled environment. In one of the settings which I have previously attended children were allowed to carry out activities based on what they wanted to learn. For example, one child came into school with a plastic dinosaur, the teacher noticed that this captured his imagination as he was showing the other children what the dinosaur would have ate and where it would have lived  and so she decided to change lesson plans in order to incorporate the child’s interests.
 

How has the foundation phase changed education?

The foundation phase has changed education as children no longer are taught specific subjects but because of the impact that the foundation phase has had on today’s education children are being taught topics. The idea of teaching topics rather than individual subjects enhances children’s education as they have the opportunity to have a holistic view of education. This is also important as it makes particular subjects such a maths or English which children may find boring or challenging more appealing if they can link it to something their interested in. for example, children who may find English challenging may benefit from story or creative writing if they had to write about a topic that they were interested e.g. dinosaurs, rather than a topic given to them by the teacher.

The foundation phase has helped improve education as from my experience classrooms are move child orientated, colourful and inviting than they were before the foundation phase was introduced in wales.

Are there any positives or negatives about the foundation phase?

A positive about the foundation phase if it is achieved well in an environment is that it can allow children to develop their creativity, have freedom of exploration and imagination and help develop the children’s own personal preferences and choices. 

A negative about the foundation phase is that it can often look as if children are engaging in playing all of the time, when in fact during this time children may be developing skills such as problem solving, language, inter and intrapersonal skills, numeracy and trial and error skills all of which they need throughout life. 

 

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