ABSTRACT
I have been teaching at De Bohun School for over 20 years and am striving to work in the best possible way for children in the Foundation Stage. During my career there have been numerous government initiatives, some of which I have embraced and others I have not. I constantly question new ideas and will resist their introduction if I think they are inappropriate.Thus, in 1999, during an OFSTED inspection, 70 per cent of my lessons were classed as ‘failing’ because the children were ‘playing’. I was told by the inspector that ‘The children have had their play in the nursery!’ In contrast to this, our Foundation Stage was rated ‘outstanding’ in a recent OFSTED inspection when the inspector again saw the children ‘playing’. When the Literacy Hour was introduced I was criticised
because I did not adhere to the timing guidelines and was told that ‘four-year-olds are perfectly capable of sitting on the carpet for 40 minutes!’Again I refused to follow these guidelines and a few years later there was a shift away from this pressure in Reception classes.
