Naughty new entrants

An article in the ‘Stuff – National’ states: There were 70 instances of five-year-olds being stood down and 131 of six-year-olds, with six instances of five-year-olds suspended and 20 instances of six-year-olds.

5 year old ready for school

It seems that the behavior of our our very youngest students is deteriorating.
Surely, at age five or six any blame directed at school or schooling practices is minimal.
Those early years are dominated by parenting and ECE.

Quality parenting skills are a prized treasure by one sector of New Zealand society and viewed as a complete waste of time by another.

Sterotypes are unhelpful here as both these views are help by people across the economic/ social/ cultural divide.

My point being that the importance of parenting skills and lifestyle choices continue to impact upon kids right through their childhood.

Again this article serves to highlight my point that it is the parent who should be the champion of their child’s education and teachers/ coaches/ tutors are mere subcontractors.

Further reading

NZ Herald article entitled "New entrant suspensions reach 5 year high" 
Radio New Zealand article entitled "More bad behaviour among youngest children"


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Today is a ANOTHER day for ECE news.

First there is the opinion that John Key out of touch with parents when it comes to Early Childhood eduation. Then we have Dunedin literally haunted by the spectre of budget cuts past.

OTAGO Daily times:

“The impact was evident in an advertisement Dunedin's Little Wonders centre placed in the Otago Daily Times on Saturday. It was seeking an "untrained early childhood teacher", which raised the ire of New Zealand Teachers Council director Dr Peter Lind, who was "concerned" about the wording of the advertisement.
He questioned if people would be happy to see a medical practice advertise for an untrained doctor.”

It is my opinion that stating ‘untrained’ in the advert is merely antagonistic and is not at all appropriate. But to equate that with advertising for an ‘untrained doctor’ is a bit of a push. I’m sorry but nobody died due to a poor choice in maths game.
It is interesting to note the number of adverts for Scale A classroom teachers stating ‘New Zealand registered teacher’. Do we raise an eyebrow at that? Is that discriminatory? Is that not a clever wording for ‘we’re not taking untrained teachers’? Is not practically racist?
I would question what parents are looking for in an ECE centre. I wonder how many genuinely choose one centre over the other based upon the number of qualified staff and how many simply factor the ‘feel’ of the centre.
NOTE: I have no idea how many, or which, staff were qualified at my son’s centre – but then maybe I’m a terrible father.


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Under-achieving 0-3 year olds

Education for 0-3? Surely if they have learnt to eat, sleep and breathe they’ve made a pretty good start. But it seems according to this article from 'topnews' it just doesn’t cut it. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner states in a report that because the human brain is the most open for change in the first three years of a person’s life it means we need to over stimulate and chivvy those littlies along with their language skills and maths and a little of science and social studies?
Perhaps there is a need for centre staff, qualified or otherwise, to be multi-lingual. I don’t just mean English and Maori which some seem to tick the multi-lingual box for, but rather a language of the Philippines , Chinese, Spanish or Japanese.
But then, if there is no one, mum or dad or grandma, speaking the language on an ongoing basis what would be the point?
...Wait. Perhaps let use this as an opportunity to raise the language learning curriculum in primary and secondary schools too.

Welsh ...anyone? ... anyone?

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Mummy? ... Mummy?... Mummmmmmy!!!!!

Apparently, it takes Children's Commissioner John Angus a full investigation to determine that under one’s are best cared for at home. I could have saved a lot of time and money and just given him my Gran’s telephone number, she’d have told him.
Also the report stated that the ratio of staff member to child should be lowered. Again another thing my Gran may mention, only two arms per staff member and so much sobbing/ crying/ comforting to be done.
Sure, wouldn’t it be nice if all mum’s could stay at home, look after bubs full time and not have another care in the world. For that matter, wouldn’t it be nice if Dad could do that instead, oh, I mean ‘as well’.
There are about 32,000 children under the age of two in formal early childhood education.
Reality is that many parents need to go back to work, some even prefer to go back to work. Parents who return to work full-time and good parents are two groups that are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Options need to given. Government does not need to provide full-funding for one or the other but some funding offering some choice may be appreciated.
Angus said there was "room for government policy" to better support parents who make a choice to stay at home to care for their child.

There needs to be some fairness to the system. Its no good a mother on one toddler having to go back to work where another of 3 or 4 teenagers can afford to stay home.

“...stop paying parents while thier kids are at school 30 hours per week, they can work .”  

Robymac from the the TVNZ item

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Parents still control the future

Teachers can often identify (very early- late elementary school) students who will find legal trouble, sex issues, and early, unplanned pregnancy later in life.
So it’s finally acknowledged what we’ve all known for years. A kids future can be defined by the time they get to preschool.  So this behaviour pattern is not really taught at school but suffered. The core behaviour habits have already been defined really too early for teachers to be solely responsible.
Parents attitude, ability, and genes play a much larger role in defining the adult their kids will become.
Who was it that said: Show the child at 7 and I’ll show you the man?

Useful links:
20 Tips for Parents from Preschool Teachers
The parenting place
Parents as first teachers
Reading material from Fishpond
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ECE options zero: Suck it up

Many childhood centres are already proposing fee hikes with the Early Childhood Education revenue cuts, announced in last year’s Government Budget becoming effective at the beginning of next week.
Many have risen there prices already, grabbing a few grand with the overlap. But that is far from lasting them any time at all.
But then what choice is there for us as parents. We’re in full time employment, can;t afford to give it up, our kid is settled and most if not all centres in our area are also raising costs. There is no other option than to ‘suck it up’.
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