3 March 2014
Damian Hinds MP
Chair of the APPG on Social Mobility
House of Commons
Copies to Centre Forum, Character Counts
Dear Mr Hinds
We were extremely interested to note the recent publication of your
report, Character and Resilience Manifesto. We very much welcome
the focus on these aspects of children’s learning and development,
and strongly endorse the discussion of the evidence on their
importance to children’s life chances. We also applaud a number of
the recommendations made in your report.
We are disappointed and concerned, however, that the report gives
no recognition to current significant emphasis on supporting children
to be confident, responsible and resilient learners in the existing early
years framework (Early Years Foundation Stage – EYFS), in
professional development of the early years workforce, and in
improvements in practice. This omission does a disservice to the
excellent work of many early years settings, at a time when identifying
and retaining the most effective approaches is of critical importance to
children’s longer term outcomes.
The recommendation to extend the Pupil Premium into the early years
is welcome, particularly if focussed on developing practice around
character and resilience rather than narrow attention to academic
achievement. Your emphasis on effective parenting initiatives is an
important endorsement of the critical role of parents and the
fundamental partnership with parents which is a central element of the
EYFS.
We are concerned, however, that your recommendations for a best
practice tool-kit and for a school readiness measure do not reflect the
current situation, and may serve to undermine important activity
and existing effective practice in the early years sector. The sector is
not strongly represented in your list of contributors, which is
regrettable given your acknowledgement of the vital difference that
can be made to children’s life chances at this stage, through
influencing parenting skills as well as children’s progress. TACTYC
would welcome the opportunity to contribute our perspective and
expertise to ensure that your important work reflects, supports and
extends current objectives for the early years. I enclose a folder
describing our recommendations for future developments in this key
policy area, and would be glad to discuss them with you in more
detail.
Best practice tool-kit
There is currently extensive support for practitioners in implementing
the legal requirement to engage in the areas of building character and
resilience in young children. In the EYFS (2012), for example, social
and emotional aspects of development are identified and emphasised
as prime areas of learning underpinning all early development.
The EYFS 2012 also introduced a legal requirement for practice to
reflect aspects of character and resilience described in your report (‘a
belief in one’s ability to achieve, an understanding of the relationship between
effort and reward, the patience to pursue long-term goals, the perseverance to
stick with the task at hand, and the ability to bounce back from life’s inevitable
setbacks’). These are described as the ‘characteristics of effective
learning’ (see appendix), which align very strongly with the attributes
on which your report focusses. Together with emotional and social
development, these describe self-regulated, independent, resilient
learners which research shows are strong predictors of life success.
Over the past two years attention to character and resilience in the
early years has been a major area of focus in practitioners’
professional development. Thousands of these practitioners have
accessed training on identifying such attributes in children from birth
to five, and supporting children to become resilient learners. As well
as material published in the professional press, a number of books on
this theme have been published to wide readership and the sector has
engaged with enthusiasm in this agenda (1). The EYFS Profile
requires teachers to comment on these attributes for each child, and
to discuss them with parents and the next teacher. In addition, in
many cases these characteristics are included in the required
Progress Check at age two, again discussed with parents. So a
common focus and language already exists.
Research also provides clear messages about best practice which
supports the development of these attributes (2). The central issue is
that these attributes cannot be directly taught; they must be learned
through consistent experiences which enable children to use these
characteristics. In the early years, play and playful experiences offer
the richest context for children to meet challenges, take risks, make
decisions, solve problems, re-group and bounce back when intentions
are not met, build concentration and intrinsic motivation, and think
creatively and critically. Alongside secure attachments with key
adults, playful interactions are also the context in which children
experience and learn about the emotions and perspectives of
themselves and others.
Within this context, a skilful adult focussed on supporting and
encouraging children to be self-regulating learners is essential.
Effective support for character and resilience cannot be provided
through off-the-shelf interventions, but requires knowledge and
understanding of expert practitioners who can establish the conditions
for children’s growth as well as respond optimally to children moment
to moment.
Guidance on best practice was commissioned by the DfE in 2012,
published as Development Matters (Early Education, 2012,
http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/DevelopmentMatters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf see particularly pp 3-7).
Recently the DfE has attempted to sideline this document,
withdrawing it from its website and substituting a reduced and partial
document labelled ‘Early Years Outcomes’ which includes solely the
child outcomes in curricular areas without the best practice guidance,
and totally removes the section on the characteristics of effective
learning. The recent Sutton Trust report, Sound Foundations (Mather
et al 2014), based on a review of research of impact of practice,
recommends that the full version of Development Matters should be
promoted.
Baseline assessment
We agree that any summative assessment must include aspects of
children’s personal, social and emotional development and selfregulation. This is one reason why we have strongly opposed
government’s intention to replace the existing EYFS Profile with a
limited baseline on measurable knowledge. How a child deals with
challenge, makes relationships, concentrates, persists, has
confidence to take risks, and loves learning cannot be shown in a
standardised test – nor will it be apparent in the early days in a new
situation and new relationships at the beginning of the reception year.
The current EYFS Profile, in contrast, is built from ongoing formative
assessment over time and in many contexts. It reflects a child’s
responses to challenges and embedded skills and knowledge which
the child uses independently in a range of situations. It includes an
assessment of personal, social and emotional development, alongside
other areas of learning. As in the Maryland Model for School
Readiness cited in your report, the teacher’s assessment is listed in
three bands of ‘emerging’, ‘expected’, or ‘exceeding’. It is completed
at the end of the EYFS to inform provision for children moving into the
primary years, but is by no means the only assessment during the
early years. Early years practitioners continually assess children’s
learning and development, and at the beginning of the reception year
teachers already ‘baseline’ children using appropriate observational
assessment over the first few weeks in school.
There certainly remains room for development of practitioner
knowledge and skills in assessing the characteristics of effective
learning, and in supporting children to have the experiences which will
allow them to flourish: this area is high on the agenda for EYFS
practitioners. Narrative accounts of children’s self-regulation form part
of current assessment and, while the characteristics of effective
learning are not quantified, they form a significant part of the
discussions about school readiness between teachers and with
parents. We urge you to build on this existing base rather than
discounting current initiatives by advocating or adopting models
unrelated to the legal structure and terminology that is informing
strong developments in the early years sector.
TACTYC, an organisation with over 500 members involved in early
years practice and the professional development of early years
educators, is well placed to contribute accurate and well-informed
perspectives in your continuing work in support of a stronger focus on
character and resilience. We would be pleased to work with you on
this agenda as your work progresses.
Appendix
The characteristics of effective early childhood learning
Playing and exploring – engagement
Finding out and exploring
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Showing curiosity about objects, events and people
Using senses to explore the world around them
Engaging in open-ended activity
Showing particular interests
Playing with what they know
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Pretending objects are things from their experience
Representing their experiences in play
Taking on a role in their play
Acting out experiences with other people
Being willing to ‘have a go’
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Initiating activities
Seeking challenge
Showing a ‘can do’ attitude
Taking a risk, engaging in new experiences, and learning by trial and error
Active learning – motivation
Being involved and concentrating
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Maintaining focus on their activity for a period of time
Showing high levels of energy, fascination
Not easily distracted
Paying attention to details
Keeping on trying
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Persisting with activity when challenges occur
Showing a belief that more effort or a different approach will pay off
Bouncing back after difficulties
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
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Showing satisfaction in meeting their own goals
Being proud of how they accomplished something – not just the end result
Enjoying meeting challenges for their own sake rather than external rewards or
praise
Creating and thinking critically – thinking
Having their own ideas
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Thinking of ideas
Finding ways to solve problems
Finding new ways to do things
Making links
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Making links and noticing patterns in their experience
Making predications
Testing their ideas
Developing ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect
Choosing ways to do things
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Planning, making decisions about how to approach a task, solve a problem and
reach a goal
Monitoring how effectively their activities are going
Changing strategy as needed
Reviewing how well the approach worked
(1) Stewart, N, How Children Learn: the characteristics of effective early
learning, Early Education (2012);
Moylett, H (Ed), Characteristics of Effective Early Learning – Helping
young children become learners for life, Open University Press
(2014);
Learning and Teaching in the Early Years series, Practical Pre-school
Books (2013): Playing and Exploring (A McTavish), Active Learning
(H Moylett), Creating and Thinking Critically (D Chilvers);
Whitebread, D, Developmental Psychology & Early Childhood
Education, (2012).
(2) Whitebread, D. and Bingham, S. (2011). School Readiness: a critical
review of perspectives and evidence. TACTYC Occasional Paper No.
2: TACTYC.
About TACTYC
TACTYC is a membership based organisation. It aims to promote the
highest quality professional development for all UK early years
educators in order to enhance the educational well-being of the
youngest children. Our activities include:
 ‘advocacy and lobbying’ - providing a voice for all those
engaged with the professional development of practitioners
through responding to early years policy initiatives and
contributing to the debate on the education and training of the
UK early years workforce;
 ‘informing’ – developing the knowledge-base of all those
concerned with early years education and care by
disseminating research findings through, for example, our
international journal, Early Years, annual conference, website
and occasional publications;
 ‘supporting’ – encouraging informed and constructive
discussion and debate and supporting practitioner reflection,
the use of evidence-based practice and practitioner research
through, for example, our newsletter and website.
www.tactyc.org.uk