The Scottish Government

ACCESS TO A TEACHER FOR PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN

Why is this important?

The Scottish Government's overarching Purpose is to increase sustainable economic growth. Key to the realisation of this vision will be making Scotland a country which is:

· Wealthier and Fairer;

· Smarter;

· Healthier;

· Safer and Stronger; and

· Greener

A Smarter Scotland will be one where all children are given the opportunity to develop and to thrive at all stages of their educational experience. The Scottish Government's National Performance Framework sets out a number of National Outcomes which will support the move towards a Smarter Scotland:

· We are better educated, more skilled and more successful, renowned for our research and innovation

· Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens

· Our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed

Within this, the National Performance Framework includes a specific indicator for improving the quality of pre-school education:

· Increase the proportion of pre-school centres receiving positive inspection reports

To work towards the outcome of improving the quality of pre-school education, the Scottish Government has committed, in its Concordat with local government, to:

Improving the learning experience for children and young people by improving the fabric of schools and nurseries; developing and delivering A Curriculum for Excellence; and, as quickly as is possible, reducing class sizes in P1 to P3 to a maximum of 18 and improving early years provision with access to a teacher for every pre-school child.

The commitments on pre-school reflect the Scottish Government's broader focus on the early years as a priority area for action. The Early Years Framework, which was published in 2008, set out the Scottish Government and COSLA's vision for the early years, as well as a number of key actions aimed at achieving the outcome of giving all children the best possible start in life.

High-quality educational experiences across all the learning stages are essential in order to give children the best possible start. The focus is on improving experiences and outcomes for young children, in line with the Early Level of a Curriculum for Excellence. The deployment of teachers in early years settings, in ways which make the best use of their particular skills, has a key part to play in the provision of high-quality pre-school provision and the achievement of the National Indicator on pre-school.

This document aims to provide information for providers of pre-school education on the key issues to consider when implementing the commitment to deliver access to a teacher for all pre-school children.

What Are the Key Elements of Quality Provision in Pre-School?

It is well-documented that good quality pre-school provision enhances children's development. The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) longitudinal study has shown that high quality pre-school experiences lead to better intellectual and social/behavioural development, and that disadvantaged children benefit significantly from good quality pre-school experiences. There are, however, significant differences between pre-school providers, and research shows that the quality of provision makes a significant difference to outcomes for children.

Some of the key elements of quality in pre-school settings, as defined in the EPPE report, are:

· Qualification level of staff, particularly the teacher

· Curriculum quality

· Daily routines, social interaction and facilities

· Staff-child interaction (how responsive and sensitive staff are)

One of the key findings of the Scottish Government's report "Building the Curriculum 2" (2006) was that pedagogy based on active learning, including purposeful play, was key for young children. The report also found that staff in centres must have the appropriate skills and qualifications to deliver this quality learning experience.

HMIE's 2006 report Improving Scottish Education identified that effective leadership which focussed on improving the quality of children's learning and the skills of staff in promoting it was key for high quality pre-school provision. The report also identified that staff should engage with individual children to address their learning needs, and plan for future progress. Improving Scottish Education 2, published in January 2009, set out a number of strengths which had been noted by inspectors visiting pre-school centres over the period 2005-08:

· Good curriculum and progress of children in key aspects of learning

· Confident children who enjoy their pre-school experiences and are motivated to learn

· Supportive and caring relationships between both children and staff, and parents and staff

· Welcoming and inclusive learning environments

However, there remained areas for improvement. These include:

· Variable quality of provision across sectors with voluntary and private, in general, less effective than local authority run centres

· Quality of leadership in guiding educational developments and children's learning

· Staff interaction to extend and challenge children's learning

· Identification of individual learning needs and staff intervention to ensure children make appropriate progress

Review of Evidence on Value Added by Teachers

There is a significant body of evidence to suggest that the presence of pre-school teachers has an impact on both the quality of pre-school centres and on child outcomes (social, behavioural and cognitive).

HMIE's 2007 report: "Key Role of Staff in Providing Quality Pre-School Education" found that pre-school centres with qualified teachers perform better than those without, on staff/child interaction, meeting children's needs, leadership and providing support for children with additional support needs

Similarly, the EPPE Longitudinal Study found that pre-school settings where staff have higher qualifications demonstrate higher quality and provide children with better social and behavioural gains.

In their analysis of the EPPE case studies, Melhuish et al (2002, 2003) found that teachers positively influenced the learning environment, as less qualified staff were better "pedagogues" when supervised by teachers. They also found that the highest quality early years centres have qualified teachers working alongside other well-qualified nursery staff - emphasising that pre-school settings benefit from having a range of professionals playing complementary roles.

Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) found that qualified staff, including teachers, challenged children more, used more sophisticated pedagogy, responded more positively to children and provided more developmentally appropriate activities.

The broader workforce picture

The commitment to deliver access to a teacher for all pre-school children is part of a wider Scottish Government commitment to developing the children's services workforce. The other key elements are:

· The introduction of the SCQF Level 9 qualification in Childhood Practice. Managers of pre-school and childcare centres will be required to hold, or be working towards, such a qualification by 2011 if they do not already hold a teaching or other qualification that meets registration requirements.

· Ongoing development of the wider children's workforce, including the ongoing process of registration with the Scottish Social Services Council and the development of roles working across sectors as set out in the Early Years Framework.

This threefold approach recognises that all of these groupings within the workforce have a vital, and complementary, role to play within the pre-school sector. Deployment of teachers should therefore be part of a wider approach to improving the learning experience that also encompasses the importance of developing the entire early years workforce and delivering a curriculum that provides challenge and enjoyment, breadth, coherence, relevance, personalisation, choice, progression and depth.

Teacher Skills

Evidence from research (Groark et al, 2006; Edgington, 2004, Melhuish et al, 2002) indicates that, in addition to skills in curriculum planning, teachers working with very young children should be skilled in the pedagogy of early years, and should possess the following skills and qualities in particular:

· particular personal qualities - such as warmth, having the ability to be responsive to young children and to enable them to express their feelings

· an ability to reflect and analyse;

· to have clear principles underpinning practice;

· an ability to take the lead; an in-depth understanding of child development and effective learning and the ability to be a conscientious record-keeper;

Teachers who are also heads of pre-school centres should, in addition, possess effective leadership skills.

Given the evidence on the potential benefits of having teachers with specific early years skills working in early years settings, the Scottish Government is committed to working with teacher education institutions to develop courses which will offer more specialised early years teaching skills. This is one of the Early Years Framework's Priorities for Action.

Access to a teacher

The research evidence from studies undertaken in pre-school settings is not conclusive on the question of how much of a teacher's time is required to improve children's outcomes. There would, therefore, be no basis for setting a minimum threshold for what counts as access in terms of FTE.

In terms of the Scottish Government and COSLA's commitment, access to a teacher can be considered either as teacher involvement in a specific centre on a full/part time basis or sustained peripatetic support that contributes positively to the learning experience for children. Occasional or ad-hoc support from a teacher is unlikely to deliver this and will be counted separately in measurement of progress via the annual Pre-School and Childcare Census.

Evidence from the EPPE report suggests the overall level of highly trained staff, particularly teachers, is important in terms of pre-school quality and outcomes for children. The access to a teacher commitment within the Concordat should therefore be interpreted as meaning that, across Scotland as a whole, there will be an increase in the level of teacher involvement as well as the extension of access to a teacher for all children in pre-school.

Combined with the greater graduate involvement in pre-school which will result from the introduction of the SCQF 9 Childhood Practice degree, the policy of pre-school expansion and the rollout of Curriculum for Excellence, the commitment to ensure access to a teacher for all pre-school children provides a significant opportunity to deliver improvement in outcomes for children.

Teacher Roles

The introduction of degree-level qualifications in Childhood Practice will mean that there will be a mix of teachers and other graduate-level staff in pre-school settings. It will, therefore, be important to be clear on the respective roles of each, with a focus on deploying teachers in ways which make use of their particular skills. These roles may vary and depend on whether the teacher is full time in a centre or peripatetic

Where a teacher is full time, they should have a role leading practice. Where peripatetic, their role is more likely to be in enriching the learning experience alongside staff in the centre. Centre managers must retain overall responsibility for the learning experience in their centre.

HMIE's Key Role report, referred to earlier, set out a number of examples of specific benefits which teachers have been shown to bring - many of these centre around working directly with children. One example given in the report was the support provided by teachers for children with additional support needs. Support for this group of children was found to be of a significantly higher standard in centres with a teacher, where that teacher had a key role in development of additional support plans and delivery of best possible learning experience.

Other identified areas where teachers add value are:

· feeding into curriculum design;

· promoting active learning approaches when interacting with children;

· supporting the transition from nursery to primary;

· modelling effective practice (e.g. by demonstrating developmentally appropriate activities to other staff)

Ideally, teachers should not just have a backroom role in planning and working with other staff, although these elements are important. Greatest benefits are likely to be where teachers spend a good proportion of their time in direct contact with children, modelling practice. The nature of teacher roles will depend on the circumstances of individual centres.

The pre-school teacher's role need not be confined to 3-5. There may be scope for teachers to contribute to the learning experience in the centre more broadly e.g. through helping develop active learning and supporting practice for 0-3s in centres which provide that service.

Peripatetic Teachers

Peripatetic teachers are used by many centres, particularly in rural areas. Different skills will be required of teachers undertaking peripatetic roles, given that they will spend less time in centres than their full-time counterparts. It is vital that peripatetic specialists should possess particularly strong skills/qualities in relation to the following areas: commitment to teamwork, good communication skills and shared respect for valuing everyone's role. Support structures should be in place for peripatetic teachers, to ensure they do not feel isolated

CPD

It is important that teachers in pre-school settings have access to continuing CPD. This may be accessed via in-service provision, through networks or through post-graduate study. It is particularly important that the CPD needs of peripatetic teachers are taken into consideration. It is likely that they will need significant training and support, given the particular challenges they will encounter in this role. There may also be scope for teachers to share CPD opportunities with other professionals working with children - the Learning Teaching Scotland web resource GLOW could be helpful in facilitating this.

Teacher deployment

Local authorities are responsible for taking decisions on teacher deployment in their area. Deployment of teachers on a full-time basis to centres continues to have a strong role to play in delivering positive outcomes for children. However, local circumstances will vary and it may not be possible for teachers to be deployed on a full-time basis in every pre-school centre in the short or medium term. Where this is the case, alternative models of teacher support may be adopted, such as a part-time or peripatetic teacher model. .

Where peripatetic models are being adopted, the amount of teacher time devoted to each centre may not be identical. Local authorities may decide the factors that they consider to be most important e.g. the size and characteristics of the centre, the nature of the community served or the need for improvement, or such combination of these factors as they deem appropriate.

Where teachers are attached to specific centres and are not supernumerary, there will be implications arising from the reduction of teacher contact time to 22.5 hours per week and the increase in pre-school entitlement to 570 hours from 2010. Local authorities should take this into account in planning teacher deployment.

The Concordat commitment is to move towards providing access to a teacher as quickly as possible. Progress may vary across authorities and across different types of centre in the short and medium term but overall the goal must be to provide sustained access to a teacher for every pre-school child.

Deployment in Partner Centres

The commitment on access to a teacher extends to partner centres. The commitment can be fulfilled by partners employing their own teachers or through deployment of local authority-employed teachers into partner centres.

Care will be needed to respect the position of the centre manager where local authority teachers are deployed into partners. The partner centre must take overall responsibility for the quality of the learning experience provided to children. Good practice might be to give the centre a role in defining/agreeing the role that the teacher will play in the centre. It is important that the wider team in centres do not feel that the presence of the teacher is an imposition, but rather, an enriching resource.

It is for local authorities to take decisions on the allocation of funding based on local needs and circumstances, in line with the terms of the Concordat. For partner centres, funding of teacher time is an important issue. The model used to define the former advisory floor did not assume teacher involvement. If teacher deployment in partner centres imposes costs on providers, then this will need to be taken into account in deciding the level of payment. Local authorities should consider where management responsibility for those staff working in partner centres on a peripatetic basis should lie.

Reflective Questions

• Have you defined clear objectives for how teachers can contribute to the overall learning experience for children in pre-school?
• Have you considered the role that teachers will play as part of a wider strategy to improve the learning experience that encompasses all nursery staff, curriculum developments, the learning environment and other factors?

• Have you established a clear view of the role that teachers should play in pre-school and how the impact of their work will be monitored and evidenced?
• Have you considered how this role might vary depending on whether teachers are deployed into centres on a full-time, part-time or peripatetic basis?
• Have you considered how the respective roles of teachers, SCQF Level 9 staff and other staff can complement each other?
• Do you have a clear view of the teaching skills required in pre-school and how these will be secured? Have you considered the particular skills that may be required of peripatetic teachers?
• Do you have a plan for how teachers will be supported to access CPD to support the role that they are playing?
• Have you thought about the scope for sharing CPD opportunities for teachers with other professionals?
• Have you established clear criteria for how teachers will be deployed in pre-school in your local authority area? Does this take into account the different needs of centres and communities?
• Have you considered the implications of the move to 570 hours from 2010 in your planning of teacher deployment?
• Do you have a plan for teacher deployment in partner centres and have you discussed this with partners?
• Have you considered the implications of teacher deployment on funding of partner centres?
• Have you developed an overall plan for delivering access to a teacher for every pre-school child as quickly as possible that encompasses the various issues above?

REFERENCES

Edgington, M (2004), The Foundation Stage Teacher in Action. Teaching 3, 4 and 5 year olds. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) study, Institute of Education, University of London/DfES http://eppe.ioe.ac.uk/.

Groark, Christine J.; Mehaffie, Kelly; McCall, Robert; & Greenberg, Mark. (Eds.) (2006). Evidence-Based Programs and Practices for Early Childhood Care and Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

HMIE (2006), Improving Scottish Education: http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hmieise.pdf

HMIE (2007), The Key Role of Staff in Providing Quality Pre-school Education: http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/Key%20Role%20of%20staff.pdf

HMIE (2009), Improving Scottish Education 2005-08:

http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/ise09.html

Melhuish, E. C., Sammons, P., Sylva, K., Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart, B., & Elliot, K. (2002). The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education Project. Technical Paper 8a: Measuring the impact on children's cognitive development over the pre-school year. London: Institute of Education/DfES.

Melhuish, E. C., Sammons, P., Smees, R., Taggart, B., Sylva, K., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Elliot, K. (2003). The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education Project. Technical Paper 8b: Measuring the impact on children's social behavioural development over the pre-school years . London: Institute of Education/DfES.

Scottish Executive (2007), Building the Curriculum 2: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/Building%20the%20Curriculum%202_tcm4-408069.pdf

Siraj-Blatchford, I; Sylva, K; Muttock, S; Gilden, R & Bell, D. (2002) Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years, DfES Research Report 356/MEEIFP lit review.