This essay is going to discuss how over time, the understandings and ideals of early years education have changed and developed enormously in Britain. The ideals of education are to emphasize an individual’s mind of knowledge, allowing them to adapt and develop what they already know. Early years education is a modern term, which is the first part of education, providing a variety of opportunities for a child (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2014). It is important to understand that early years education is not compulsory. Even though currently, early years education is in place to create a balanced, cognitive development for a child, it has not always been …show more content…
It was only expected that children from higher classes were able to attend school, as they were the only ones who could afford the fees. According to GOV.UK (2014) the aim of early years education is to improve the quality of education for young children aged 0-5 years. This means that from a young age, children are introduced to a social context where personal improvement is the central, main interest. In the UK today, early years education puts foundations in to place to ensure that young children are able to successfully progress onto primary and higher education.
The understandings of early years education have developed over time. Even though it has traditionally always been the same age category, in the past, early years included childcare as well as education. However, the idea of children being looked after at home by their mothers is sometimes incorrect as it is a recent idea, which rarely happened before World War 2. Firstly, without looking back further than 1997, there has already been some developments in the understandings and ideals of early years education. According to The Education Union (2003), The White Paper Excellence in Schools (1997) recognized that it