Large group sizes are causing problems in the early years
Group sizes and setting sizes seem to getting larger and larger as the demand for childcare rises as more parents are making the decision to go back to work. Recent changes enforced by the government such as benefit reductions and an increase in funding all mean that group sizes do not appear to be reducing any time soon. On a positive note this does mean many children are now getting access to an outstanding early education however early years settings are finding the increasing numbers a strain which in the end many lead to lower standards of care and education for the children.
What are the problems faced by practitioners?
These increasing numbers include all children in the early years with larger baby rooms and huge preschools. Although there may only be 24 children in on one day there may be a total of over 50 children on the books for one large preschool room. This means practitioners have large numbers of key children, paperwork, parents and only the same amount of time they have always had to complete jobs and activities.
One of the main concerns is that large group sizes are taking away the focus from the individual learner. After all it can be difficult to individually plan activities to meet the needs of a large amount of children. Also individual needs may be easily missed because practitioners are being stretched so thinly because of the number of key children they have. This unfortunately goes against much of what the EYFS stands for and the early years are a crucial time when individual needs should be met and supported. Differentiation is also incredibly important during the early years as all children develop at different rates and all have different starting points and next steps as stated by the development matters(2012) document on each page. Not only can differentiation be difficult when dealing with a large group size but also can ensuring that all the children in group have had the opportunity to explore and discover from each of the activities available.
Another concern is that this can also put extra pressure on the settings SENCO, speech and language champions and designated leads by making it hard to identify needs. It can also make the process of gathering observations, discovering the need, and making referrals difficult if there are a large number of children who need additional support.
Paperwork is always something which practitioners feel put a large strain on their jobs and is only getting worse with increasing numbers of children. With more children comes more observations, planning, journals, daily diaries etc. It can be difficult to find the time and gather all the information needed if a key person is being stretched between large numbers of key children. It may mean that practitioner’s become overloaded with the amount of work needed to complete.
If practitioners feel the load is too much then it may be useful to discuss with your manager a maximum number you feel would work for you room. You may also like to discuss employing more practitioners so you can have more key persons to be across the large amount of children instead of increasing the number of key children each key person has.