CIDREE YEARBOOK 2007
Education of the 4 to 8 Year Old –
Re-designing School Entrance Phase

Foreword (extract)

Transitions are always challenging. Leaving behind the familiar and moving into the unknown is part of the rhythm of human development. Nowhere is this more evident than in education and schooling.

The transition from the primary to the post-primary phases of schooling has been the focus of much deliberation and research. Similar scrutiny has also been applied to the move from second-level to third-level education, from schooling to further and higher education and to the world of work. To date, less attention has been paid to the experiences of younger children moving from the relative informality of the wide range of early childhood education settings into the pre-school or school environment. However, the current social, economic and political focus on education of very young children, and on early childhood as a life-stage in itself, is placing more attention on this first educational transition.

This publication is focused on 4-8 year olds. As is evidenced by the papers presented in this yearbook the experiences of these children vary widely across Europe. Some European 4 year olds are in classrooms, behind desks, with books, and homework, and all the trappings associated with formal schooling. Others are on swings and in sand-pits, painting and making, learning through play. For other children, it’s a mixture of the play world and the school world. Children who are poor, who are immigrant or the children of immigrants, who have special needs or language difficulties may find themselves excluded from both worlds, and from many of the combinations in-between. For such children the transition challenge is to move from exclusion to inclusion.

We learn much from these papers about good practice, good ideas, good research and good policies. We also learn that the emerging critical issue is how to ensure that such positive experiences are available for all children, across Europe. We have increasing evidence that this is not simply an educational imperative; it is also both democratic and moral.

Anne Looney
President of CIDREE

CONTENTS

Introduction
by Silvia Grossenbacher, Urs Vögeli-Mantovani

Starting School at Four: the English Experience
by Caroline Sharp, Sharon O’Donell

Education in Scotland 3–7 Years
by Eileen Carmichael

Negotiating an Appropriate Early Years Pedagogy Using a “Show and Tell” Strategy
by Arlene Forster, Sarah FitzPatrick

Early Childhood Education in the Netherlands: The First Steps
by Susan McKenney, Jos Letschert, Jo Kloprogge

Elementary School in Flanders. Education for Young Children: Steady Progress or a Hazardous Learning Process? Résumé and Challenges for Education Policy
by Gunter De Vos

The Education of the Age Group of 4–8: the Transformation of the Early Phase of Education in Hungary
by Mária Kõpataki and Mária Szabó

A Successful Start in Primary School – Still a Challenge for the Austrian Education System
by Elisabeth Stanzel-Tischler

Do Four-to-eight-year Olds Learn and Develop Better Together
by Urs Vögeli-Mantovani, Brigitte Wiederkehr Steiger

The Connection between Pre-primary and Primary Tradition: Work in Progress
by Lina Grossi, Donatella Poliandri

The Education of Pupils Aged 4–8 in the Spanish Education System
by Carmen Ferrero, Cosuelo Uceda