Don't send children to school at four, warn experts | Education | guardian.co.uk

Don't send children to school at four, warn experts | Education | guardian.co.uk: "Plans to lower the mandatory school starting age to four could trigger a wave of stress and anxiety among children according to new research which suggests starting formal lessons so early can damage some youngsters' education for life.

A government-backed review recommended last year that children start school at four instead of five because of concerns that summer-born babies get fewer terms of schooling and their achievement suffers permanently as a result. Many local authorities already take children at four."

Interesting article - worth a read about issues to do with socialising and schooling for young children.

Early schooling matters most for children | Education | guardian.co.uk

Early schooling matters most for children | Education | guardian.co.uk: "Attending a good pre-school and primary has more impact on children's academic progress than their gender or family background, researchers claimed today.

The Institute of Education study found that the quality of teaching children receive is more important than their gender or family income.

A high quality pre-school followed by an academically effective primary school gives children's development a significant boost, the researchers found."

Sure the above must be vaguely related to early childhood development... link to report contained in the main Guardian article.

Web 2.0-ing and fro-ing

So, I've come over all web 2.0 in my ED840 studies... probably in a response to the total lack of real interaction or collaborative opportunities on the course website... and put together a quick wiki as well as starting to work on some collaborative study notes using Google Docs with the lovely Tina.

Will report back as to how it's going later. If they help me even vaguely stay motivated and get through this course - that's gotta be a good thing. So... roll on the Blog-roll... watch out wiki... I'm comin' to getcha!

The obligatory first post

Just a note to self that the course is starting on Saturday and this is going to be my place to hold resources, reflections and other bits and bobs which are connected with the Open University course ED840, Child Development in Families, Schools and Society. It's also here to help motivate me through the course as juggling study with everything and maintaining an interest can be challenging at times!

This'll be my final course for the Masters in Education and although my work in education is mainly concerned with adults... okay... it's all concerned with adults... I think that having the background context of this course could be really helpful and it might even help me get my head round what my two little 'uns are up to!