Best start in life part 2: Ofsted’s early years research review series

In this episode, Shreena Kotecha (Head of Strategy) talks to Lee Owston (Deputy Director, Schools and Early Education) and Wendy Ratcliff (Principal Officer, Early Education) about the second part of our early years research review series.

Wendy and Lee explain how this report builds on the first part of the series and share what the next report will focus on.

Transcript

Shreena Kotecha 

Hi everyone, welcome to this edition of the Ofsted Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about the Best start in life part two research review. And today I've got with me Lee Owston and Wendy Ratcliff, who both work on early years in Ofsted. I'm gonna start by asking, this report obviously builds on part one that we published late last year. Why is it so important that we're continuing to focus on education?

Lee Owston

Yeah, hi Shreena. Good, to talk to you again. It's absolutely vital that we have a focus on early education at Ofsted. It's obviously reflected in one of our strategic priorities, which is about the importance of all children getting that best start in life. Because we know that whether children have a good early education or whether they have a poor one, those experiences will live on and they will affect how they achieve in later schooling and actually in their life generally. And that's why I'm sure lots of people listening will have heard me say a lot, a child's early education lasts a lifetime. So we need to make sure that what we do in Ofsted, and in the sector as a whole is grounded in the very best evidence of what works. And this report is part of the series, so it's part two, and it's what we're trying to achieve, by really setting out what we believe the best evidence looks like.

Shreena Kotecha 

Brilliant. Wendy did you want to come in as well?

Wendy Ratcliff

Yeah, absolutely and thank you for asking me to join you today. Just building on from what Lee said, very much the work with our youngest children is so important. This report, we hope it's going to be really helpful for practitioners and for those who are actually working with the youngest children day in day out.

Shreena Kotecha 

Lee, can you tell us a bit about what the key findings from this report are?

Lee Owston

Yeah, there's hopefully lots in there and I think what's really important is that there should be no surprises. Much of the content will be very familiar to those working in early years settings. So just some of the things to highlight in the time that we have, communication and language we know is such a fundamental aspect of every child's thinking and learning and the rate of their development in this particular area depends absolutely on their interactions with adults.

Actually, something that did surprise me in looking through the research and kind of pulling it together with the team was that more talkative, confident children actually receive more interactions and time with adults than the less confident, less communicative children. Which, to me is kind of counterintuitive, isn't it? But now that we have that, in our research, it's set out, I think it just makes everybody aware that we need to focus, particularly in terms of interactions, on those children that aren't necessarily going to come up and ask for our attention, those children that aren't going to be the ones that want to take us by the hand and lead us to the interesting things that they've spotted around the setting. So, I think if we don't address the fact that those children who are less confident in their communication and language have less of the knowledge and skill to be able to do that, then obviously, we're just going to cause those gaps, particularly for disadvantaged children and particularly for boys, to widen even further.

And, in terms of personal social and emotional development, we know that that underpins children's early learning and emotional well being. We know that those warm positive relationships with adults really help children to understand and manage their emotions. And I think just through those two elements alone, and  just those kind of snippets that I've managed to share, the fact that when we are talking about the prime areas of learning, which is the focus of part two of our research series, they are so interrelated. There are elements of communication and language that influence other areas. And I think, while lots of us will have appreciated that already, because they're the prime areas of learning for a reason, actually, it doesn't harm and it doesn't hurt to reiterate that there is a mountain and there's a raft of evidence that supports us.

Wendy Ratcliff

I think also, you've mentioned communication and language there Lee as well  personal social and emotional development, but let's not forget about physical development as well and thinking about children needing to be physically active. Physical development, it's central to children's health and their and fitness providing those important foundations for later in life. And practitioners play such an important role in encouraging those less active children to move more and teach movement skills such as balancing and jumping. And I think, you know, when we think of three and a half year olds who are in settings now, those are children who were born at the beginning of those first lockdowns and missed out on some of that physical activity. 

Lee Owston

Yeah. Great reminders about that. And, you know, we hear a lot don't we about communication and language and we've actually as an organisation had a particular emphasis on communication and language over the last eight months or so. But, let's not forget physical development and let's not forget personal social and emotional development as well.

And, just to pick up on what I was kind of sharing earlier, yes the prime areas are of course interlinked. And just to give you a sense of what we mean by that, we know that if you have more developed communication and language, then that's associated with better emotional well being because you can communicate your feelings. And actually children who are more physically active in the early years are better at regulating their emotions and tend to then do better across primary school particularly.

So, I think they're all of value aren't they as individual areas of learning - communication and language, physical development, personal social and emotional development. But actually, the benefit is how they all interrelate and interact, in terms of providing that really firm grounding that will allow children to learn and develop so that they can have those successful early years experiences, but also go on and achieve well across school, and obviously into their later life.

Shreena Kotecha 

Well, this is all making me feel a lot better about my four year old who doesn't stop moving or talking. Something that is mentioned quite a lot, which Lee you've talked about a little bit, is the importance of high quality interactions. And I just wondered, Wendy or Lee if you could expand on what you would want practitioners to take away from this bit of report?

Wendy Ratcliff

Yeah, I think one of the things there, the importance of those high quality interactions it is threaded throughout this report and it comes through loud and clear. And it's because those frequent, high quality interactions between children and adults, they play such a fundamental role in building the knowledge and skills that children need.

And thinking about what practitioners and adults can take from this, we know that those high quality interactions are more likely to take place when adults notice what children know and can do and they respond accordingly. And when adults know the curriculum in advance, so they know what it is that they want their children to be able to do during their time in that particular setting. 

Lee Owston

Yeah and can I just add, I think it's important that we keep acknowledging that this is what's important for all children. Do all children experience enough planned and incidental interactions with adults to learn what they need? We know, for example, some babies and young children will need more targeted time and attention than others. And, as I said earlier, you know, it's really easy, isn't it to talk to the chatty children? But actually, what about deliberate interactions with those that have less development and skill in terms of communication and language, and they're, they're just as important. And I think I mentioned earlier, because we particularly know that the gaps are wider for disadvantaged children in communication and language, and particularly boys.

Wendy Ratcliff

It is definitely easier to chat to those chatty children. They're the ones who are always keen and eager to come up and talk, because they've had lots of practice at it.

Shreena Kotecha

Brilliant. And expanding that just a little bit further, is there anything other than what you've talked about that you would like early years practitioners to take from this research?

Lee Owston

There's lots of key messages in there for practitioners and we've tried really hard, even though this is a research report, to ensure that the messages we give are really practical. They're really easy to implement and digest so that people who pick up the report can take bits of it into their into their practice the very next day, if that's what they wish.

That means we would encourage everybody to try and dive into the report and have a look, we hope that by seeing some of these important messages that it'll help alleviate some of the worry that providers have, particularly about Ofsted. You know, what might inspectors want to see when they inspect you. And we want to be clear that if you're doing what is right for your children, because you have the unique position of knowing your children better than any inspector who is essentially a stranger to your setting on a particular day, then if you're doing what you know is right for your children, those in front of you today, then essentially, you can plan for what what you know, they do know, and what you know, they don't know, and ensure that they get the best possible curriculum and experiences.

And ultimately, that's what inspection is about, trying to understand why you do what you do and whether that's making a difference to the children's learning and development that you intended. And while that's kind of boiling inspection, down to two questions to two sentences there, that is the crux of what inspectors do when they visit you as part of an inspection. So why do you do what you do? And is it making a difference to the children's learning and development that you intended? And we've got, as I'm sure you all know, we've got various ways of doing that on inspection, whether that's a learning walk, conversations, but essentially it's those two things that we try to get underneath.

Wendy Ratcliff

Absolutely, and you know, we really do want people to have the confidence to do what they do every day and don't do anything different just because the inspector calls. And I think the other thing, thinking about this report in particular, is that there's some key messages for each of those prime areas as well that I think those working with our youngest children would find useful really. And I think the other thing we do know, of course, is that the decisions that managers and leaders take are important. And by prioritising the prime areas in their curriculum thinking, and allocating sufficient time and resources, they can make sure children, all children, get off to that best start in their early education.

Shreena Kotecha

Brilliant. And finally, I understand this is part of a trilogy, this is part two of a trilogy, and we've got the last last part to come, can you give us a bit of a sneak preview as to what part three will focus on?

Wendy Ratcliff

We've been really clear about what part three will look at and that will conclude this research series for those working with the youngest children. So that's birth to four, so pre-reception children. And it's going to build on part one and two, but the focus will be on the four specific areas of learning.

Lee Owston

Absolutely. And I think just to add to that as a package as a whole, once we have part three published, so parts one, two, and three, is essentially about a broad curriculum which is well thought out, makes sure that all staff make the most of those planned and incidental interactions, and essentially ensures that we think about both the prime and the specific areas of learning.

And to leave people just with another phrase in which they can think about this, again, something I say all the time, ultimately we want all children to experience a curriculum by design, not by chance. And that means we want staff to be thinking through these decisions that they're making. In terms of what it is they do and don't do in terms of all children and particularly those that we know have gaps that either through the pandemic or just in terms of  individual children and what they do and don't understand yet. We want staff to be able to use that knowledge to ensure that all children get a curriculum that they have designed, not one that's just just by chance. Watch out for part three. We do hope that will be published certainly in the in the next few months.

Shreena Kotecha

Brilliant, thank you very much Lee and Wendy, it's been really nice to talk to you. Thank you to everyone for listening. And please do subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and look our for the next episode.