Birth to Five Matters, Still Matters

I recently received the second edition of Birth to Five Matters: Guidance for the Sector, by the Sector. I read the whole book, but inevitably found myself particularly interested in three things: sustainability, babies and how it approaches observation and child development. There is much to like.

I was pleased to see sustainability understood as interconnected and part of everyday Early Years practice, with an emphasis on agency, hope, positivity and compassion rather than frightening children about the future. Social justice also appears through ideas of fairness, responsibility and anticipating future needs. I might have pushed this further, particularly by making the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability more explicit, but there is only so much ground a book of this breadth can cover.

Why care matters in Early Years

I particularly welcomed the attention given to care. With all the current noise about school readiness, outcomes and getting children prepared for the next stage, care can sometimes sound like the poor relation. It isn’t.

Care, play and learning are intertwined. Care is not what we do while waiting for the learning to start. It is fundamental to children’s development, wellbeing and their developing sense of self.

That comes through strongly in the sections on babies. Babies and toddlers learn through secure, attuned relationships, their bodies, movement, senses and repeated exploration. They communicate long before they speak and need adults who notice and respond. Perhaps most importantly in increasingly busy nurseries, they need us to slow down and give them time.

What Birth to Five Matters says about child development

I also liked the use of developmental ranges rather than treating children’s progress as a race through fixed milestones. It fits well with the principle of the unique child and acknowledges what anyone who spends time with young children knows: development is wonderfully variable.

Children are people in their own right, valued for who they are now, not little projects waiting to reach the next marker. There is, however, a catch.

Flexibility only works when educators have a solid understanding of child development. The repeated use of might is helpful because it creates space for individual development, but might cannot mean anything goes. Without good professional knowledge, children who need additional support or greater challenge can slip through the cracks.

This particularly concerns me for children experiencing disadvantage, because low expectations dressed up as respecting individual development are still low expectations.

Observation, assessment and planning

The section on observation therefore struck a chord. Observation, assessment and planning are hardly new ideas in Early Years, but the book presents the OAP cycle clearly and asks some deceptively simple questions from the child’s perspective: How do you see me? How do you understand me? Can you teach me my next step?

I remain concerned about how little attention we now give to teaching the craft of observation. Today’s Level 3 requires a fraction of the observations expected in the old NNEB. Yet we continue to say observation is fundamental to good Early Years practice.

There is a slight contradiction lurking there.

You cannot meaningfully assess what you do not understand, and no framework, however well designed, can compensate for educators who haven’t been given enough opportunity to learn about child development and how to really notice children.

Why Birth to Five Matters still matters

So, no great revolutionary surprises here, and perhaps that is partly the point. This is solid Early Years practice brought together in an accessible way at a time when some of that knowledge risks becoming diluted.

I can see it being particularly useful for apprentices and students as a starting point for discussion, challenge and reflection. On that basis, Birth to Five Matters still matters.

And producing guidance shaped by more than 150 contributors is no small undertaking. Well done to Nancy Stewart for leading such a substantial collaborative project. And collaboration is the oil that greases cooperation, which is what we need to have in gallons if we are to do the best for children.

Have a read and use it with your staff, students and apprentices.