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The IEYC Case Study

A case study of how Nehru World School in India is getting on with the IEYC and Tapestry.

 

Introduction

Nehru World School (NWS) was first established in 1978. It is an English medium co-educational School affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (C.B.S.E.) in Ghaziabad, a satellite city of Delhi.

Initially catering for primary and secondary students, an Early Years centre was opened in 2007, known as Healthy Planet. Across their Pre-Nursery, Nursery, and Kindergarten classes of the Early Years Wing, there are approximately 210 children, but over 1540 children across the whole school.

Initially, the philosophy of early childhood education that provided the foundation of the early childhood learning programmes at Healthy Planet was an amalgamation of the best practices in the widely respected philosophies of Maria Montessori, Howard Gardener, John Dewey and the Reggio Emilia approach.

Inspired by successfully gaining accreditation with the Early Childhood Association (ECA) India where the Early Years programme was described as a ‘temple of learning’ with ‘a genuine commitment to children and education visible in the School’ and the desire to do even better, a review of early years curriculum frameworks worldwide took place.

 

Logo for Healthy Planet

 

Why the IEYC?

The International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC), which is based on deep analysis of global trends and specifically the national early childhood models of Singapore, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom, was chosen.

This curriculum:

  • uses best international practices
  • uses holistic enquiry
  • applies play based approaches
  • covers all areas of the curriculum including personal, social and emotional development.

Nehru World School were attracted to the philosophy of it, particularly the child centred approach. The overriding aim is to help children develop their knowledge and skills to support their development in Early Years. The teacher knows what knowledge and skills need to be taught in order to increase understanding, but also embraces the children’s own ideas and interests and understands the direction they wish to take their learning in.

 

IEYC logo

 

 

How does Tapestry fit in?

A meaningful opportunity to trial Tapestry presented itself in August 2019 when Tapestry announced that the IEYC framework of Learning Strands and Learning Outcomes was going to be included as one of its curriculum frameworks.

One of the initial things that appealed about Tapestry was how easy it is to make observations using words, pictures, and recordings.

 

Example observations

 

The fact that the appropriate IEYC statements could be added to observations with very little effort and in line with the school’s assessment policy was also a big advantage. As well as helping to assess each child’s progress against the learning strands and outcomes, it has been supporting teachers with their reflective practices.

Nehru World School believes that a strong home school connect, where trust is implicit, is a very important aspect of the learning and development process for all families and learners. Tapestry fits in well with that, having been born from a desire to improve communication between families and teachers. Individual logins and defined access to their children’s online learning journals have allowed parents and carers to observe and discuss what and how their children are learning in school on a very regular basis. They can also contribute to the record of learning, by adding comments and their own observations, and this has been invaluable. To date, parents are delighted with their online learning record of their children’s learning especially liking that they can access it from their phones and tablets.

 

Example of notes and a parent comment.

 

 

Nehru World School’s key thoughts so far

Tapestry is set up to provide an excellent online learning journey record of the unique learning experience of each child. It is straightforward to use and allows children’s learning and development to be recorded in line with their unique development and not merely to focus on achievement alone.

The extensive ‘help and tutorial’ section has been a brilliant guide to setting up, implementing and running the programme and in the event of not finding the answer, the Tapestry team are always on hand to help.

It has the potential to be a beautiful record of each child’s learning and development and we’re excited to continue our IEYC and Tapestry journey with the focus on consistently improving practice.

 

 

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