Learning contexts - Foundation phase

Learning happens everywhere, even though we often don’t notice we are continuously learning and gaining greater knowledge and understandings of the world around us, so within this blog I will be reflecting on four different educational contexts which are the foundation Phase, The Welsh National Curriculum, Forest schools and Montessori schools all of which are different contexts where children learn and develop knowledge through different experiences and planning.

The foundation Phase

The Foundation Phase is a national framework that was put enforce throughout Wales in the September of 2008, it combines early years education (3-5) and key stage one (5-7) using play based learning. “The foundation Phase is about enhancing the learning experiences which enable children to be creative, imaginative and to have fun whilst learning” (Government, 2007)

The Foundation Phase gives children the chance to learn through doing rather than being sat down and taught, it is believed that children learn more through this as they do not believe they are learning anything, they think they are just having fun It links in with Tina Bruce’s theory that a child needs to be child, and there for learns thorough play.

There are many advantages that came along with the child centred approach that is the Foundation Phase some of these advantages include, allowing children to learn at their own pace doing things they enjoy; this is due to a child not needing to rush to answer and keep up with other children in order for the practitioner to move on to another subject, it provides the children with a stress free learning environment as they don’t feel they need to be the best or feel like they are ‘Dull’, as far as the child is convinced they are playing and exploring these new discovery’s all by themselves, further more giving the child a higher self-esteem and interest in school which leads to an increase in the settings attendance. Another advantage is that children learn about their surroundings and the environment they live in through their own exploration giving them a greater understanding of the world they see and live in and that practitioners can learn each child’s interests, thus helping them with developing their planning around them. 

The foundation phase is the welsh substitute to the English framework The Foundation Stage and has seven areas of learning instead of six “Personal, Social and emotional development (PSED), Communication, Language and literacy (CLL), Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy (PRN), Knowledge and Understanding of the world (KUW), Physical Development (PD), Creative Development (CD).” (Beaver, 2008) and welsh.

Although the foundation phase has its advantages, just like all frameworks and initiatives it has its disadvantages such as funding, this is down to children having the chance to do the activity they chose which has led to an increase in many resources such as pens, papers and also staff. Due to the adult to child ratio being lowered as the Foundation Phase is allowing children to explore and discover teachers cannot look after all the children as they would if all the children were in one space this has meant that settings have had to employ and train more staff costing the setting more money.

A child’s development assessment profile can also be hard for practitioners to fill as a child may know a certain aspect but may not show it through the activity they are engrossed in at that moment in time or may not show it at any moment in time through the activity’s they chose to do, so the practitioner will have to take that child away from the activity to assess them, this can lead to the child rushing the assessment to get back to the activity of their choice, thus not giving the practitioner the correct evidence for the assessment .

Other disadvantages which argues against the foundation phase include not knowing if the Foundation Phase will benefit the child until they sit exams at the age of 16 and planning as a practitioner will have to provide the correct planning that meets each child’s care and learning needs, as each individual child is unique and presents has having different needs and requirements in order to learn appropriately.