Stories are an important part of life in early years settings, with almost 8 in 10 practitioners sharing stories with the children in their setting on a daily basis.
This report resents a snapshot of the attitudes and beliefs of 450 early years practitioners around emergent literacy in 2015, as well as the reported attitudes and emergent literacy behaviours of the children in their settings.
Attitudes and behaviours around emergent literacy do seem to be moderated by a number of important factors:
- Number of years in practice has an impact on attitudes to emergent literacy and practitioner confidence. We found that practitioners who had more experience in early years settings were more likely to report spending longer periods sharing stories with the children in their care and were also more likely to feel that their efforts around emergent literacy have an impact on the children’s development.
- Practitioners with a higher level of qualification feel more skilled and more confident when it comes to supporting children’s emergent literacy skills.
- Practitioners in early years settings rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted report better resources and more positive attitudes around emergent literacy.