BIEA Early Years Chairman Chris Waterman attends the 6th Annual Conference of Chinese Early Years Education

On November 30th 2019, the BIEA was invited to attend the 6th China Early Years Education Annual Conference, which brings renowned early years education experts and scholars together. Chris, our British EYFS expert, delivered talks on the techniques used to conduct nursery evaluation in the UK, and on the historical development of British early years education.

In the former, he stressed that the evaluation of British nurseries focuses on the inspection framework and plays an important role in improving the quality of teaching. This is because the inspection framework is accredited by the British Office for Standards in Education - Ofsted - an institution with the utmost credibility. Chris wrapped up his speech by sharing how Ofsted defines a "good" nursery, and the core elements of how a nursery can achieve its “outstanding" rating. The latter talk gave them a comprehensive history of EYFS in the UK.

At the conference, it was clear that China's early years education sector is undergoing tremendous development. This is in part due to the impact of current policies and the demand for high-quality education; nurseries and other early years institutions have subsequently been afforded new opportunities, but with them there come new challenges. For many Chinese nurseries, implementing British EYFS is undoubtedly one of the best solutions to cope with the situation. However, how can such a distinct system be implemented? How do these nurseries get an authoritative endorsement? How will they get parental support? These are the main questions that puzzle these institutions.

Based on the high recognition of the British EYFS education framework, many teachers attended the conference to learn more about how it could be implemented in China. Feng Yang, the Head of BIEA’s China Office, gave his thoughts on how excellent the EYFS system is to participating teachers; what its standards are; how nurseries implement it; the current stages of EYFS implementation in China; and the contents of the 0-3 years old and 3-5 years old framework, which is popular amongst members of BIEA Early Years League (E-League).

 


BIEA held the signing ceremony of ELQ certification with the Lejian Company, a subsidiary of Choya education group

On December 2nd 2019, the Lejian Company, a subsidiary of the Choya Education Group (formerly Agile Education Group), successfully obtained the British Early Years Qualification (ELQ) accreditation (0-3 years old childcare project), and subsequently held a ceremony celebrating their achievement in Hefei, China. Chris Waterman, BIEA’s Early Years League Chairman, and Chen Linyun, General Manager of the Lejian Company, attended the signing ceremony and delivered empowering speeches on the progress of education under the Chinese and British systems. Chris asserted that holding a BIEA ELQ is authoritative proof of a school being a high-quality British early years education institution; these professed standards have been corroborated by Ofsted and Ofqual. BIEA has recently received applications and undergone preliminary reviews of 5 nurseries in both Dubai and China, out of limited number of possibilities for their ELQ accreditation programme. The company welcomes Choya Education Group's application as one pertaining to high-quality early years education. Chris believes that there will be challenges ahead in the nursery schooling sector, and therefore it is vital that we maintain exceptional education programmes. Successful applications and acquisitions of BIEA’s ELQ Accreditation by the Happy Whale Kids Nursery in Pazhou, Foshan, Chengdu and Sheyang — also subsidiaries of the Choya Education Group — will soon join the BIEA’s prestigious E-League.

Choya Education Group, as the first institution in China applying for BIEA’s EYFS Accreditation in the 0-3 years old childcare field, will be provided full support by the E-League, such as teacher training and guidance from experts. This will also give Choya the resources to develop high-quality childcare education and adopt the EYFS framework comprehensively. With the guidance of BIEA’s E-League, and the reputation of its ELQ, it is anticipated that Choya Education Group will become a model for other Chinese nurseries to follow.

 

 

 


BIEA forms exciting partnership with the University of Northampton

The BIEA is delighted to announce that the University of Northampton is on board as a partner for our 2020 STEM conference and competition: STEM (Stop) the Tide of Plastic Pollution. We are proud to join forces with them in our endeavour to quell the growing plastic problem that our oceans face, and to provide a better education to children across the globe.

The university has very generously offered our cause financial, technical, and training support that we believe will help raise our STEM-based ventures to the next level next year and beyond, and will aid the company as a whole to promote ecological values to schools worldwide, as well as a stimulating and streamline education system. We hope to represent a modern concern for the pressing environmental issues our planet faces by incorporating them into our respective learning spheres. We hope to build a close relationship with the university over the coming years, and believe that our work will encourage other universities to follow in this vein; the resources that universities can provide - and the collective knowledge and experience of their teaching staff - will be crucial in inspiring the next generation at our competitions and providing stimulating panel discussion and debates at our conferences.

The university will also assist our competition by offering the teams greater incentives to perform: the members of the winning team, particularly that of the 15-17 age group, will be recognised in some way for their achievement if they were to apply. They will also be in attendance at the international final in July, where they will be watching and supporting the teams, as well as providing career guidance for those members wishing to speak to the representatives present.

This will be a great opportunity for the students to engage with a university adopting a fresh approach to learning; the University of Northampton is a young, ambitious, and prestigious university based in a fast-growing town 60 miles north of London. It has been recognised for its commitment to innovation and social enterprise by being names the UK’s first Changemaker Campus in 2012, an enormous achievement considering the university’s age, and a clear sign of its intentions going forward. We are proud to be partnered with such a committed and ambitious institution, and anticipate a constructive relationship that will help us create a future we want to visit!


BIEA EYFS (0-3 years old) child care thematic training successfully concludes in Beijing

On November 25, the BIEA successfully completed the EYFS (0-3 years old) childcare training in Beijing, introducing the cutting-edge British EYFS education framework. Laura Rathbone, a senior lecturer of the BIEA Early Years League (E-League), brought a unique EYFS education lecture to teachers, sharing her rich EYFS teaching experience. The trainees laid a solid foundation of EYFS in the two-day study, and they had a practical session in the Windsor Bilingual Kindergarten on the last day. They obtained the British Vocational Training Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certificate afterwards.

Laura focused on the age characteristics of children aged 0-3, and interpreted EYFS childcare and daily teaching from different perspectives such as the EYFS conservation and education programmes, and the EYFS teaching cycle (observation, evaluation and planning). The trainees received guidance on the problems encountered during these stages. In addition to the positive interaction, the information Laura shared inspired the teachers, giving them new ideas about their own teaching methods. Some trainees commented that the training has reshaped their understanding of childcare and education.

The teachers are now interested in BIEA E-League's latest 0-3 year-old thematic courses, and some are interested in using British teaching aids.

On the last day of the course, the teachers visited a Chinese nursery - Windsor Bilingual International Kindergarten - adopting the British EYFS teaching framework. The school’s teaching director, Wendy Weng, relayed her own EYFS knowledge to the teachers.

In China, daycare education has increasingly attracted attention from early years educators in conjunction with changes in the market. Everyone is enthusiastic about learning the advanced education concepts of British EYFS, in order to help them create a better education environment for young children. The EYFS (0-3 years old) childcare training courses run by the BIEA E-League have garnered wide attention from early years educators across China. In the future, while maintaining the quality of training, BIEA E-League will share further details of the BIEA Early Years League Qualification (ELQ) accredited nurseries and British early years education study tours.