The introduction of the Foundation Stage for children age three to becoming six has had a profound impact on policy and practice in early education in the UK. The choice of the word "foundation" to describe this first stage of learning has emphasized the importance of children's earliest experiences in underpinning all their subsequent attitudes and achievements. In this work, Julie Fisher has brought together some of the country's leading early years specialist to explore how educators can establish firm foundations for young children's learning. The themes in the book are stimulated by the metaphor of "foundations", with an introduction by an architect who explains the principles of establishing firm foundations for buildings. Each of these established engineering principles is then creatively explored from an educational perspective as the authors seek to question how the foundations laid for buildings can offer fresh insights into the principles for creating firm foundations for learning.

Table of Contents

Foundations take longer to create than buildings; the higher the building, the firmer the foundations have to be; the more stress a building is likely to face, the more flexible the foundations need to be; when building on poor ground, the foundations must be strengthened to compensate; if new buildings are to be added to existing buildings, making the right connections between the foundations is crucial; when testing foundations, early strength is not a reliable predictor of later strength; if foundations are inadequate, it is very, very expensive to underpin them later on.