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 Avoid grading

   This is an aspect of early-years education, which can be difficult for parents from a variety of educational contexts to come to terms with. In many countries, children are graded and measured against their peers just to get into a kindergarten. Yet we would never dream of grading our children at home.
   Every child has a range of strengths, but these will not be apparent all at once. The absence of grading means that children can develop their skills and try new ones in a relaxed and natural environment. It also means that teachers can spend more quality time helping children develop those skills without feeling pressure to assign a grade to them. When planning lessons, we need to take all our learners and their varied needs into account. There will be a range of learning styles and intelligences in any class including kinaesthetic learners, who learn best by moving their bodies; read-write learners, who show a preference for information displayed as words; visual learners and aural learners. Most children will have a combination of these things. Learning styles are not set in stone: as children acquire new skills, so they develop new ways of solving problems and getting the most out of activities. Similarly, at home, providing a range of materials and toys for children lets them experiment with different ways of learning.
   Of paramount importance is the issue of confidence. If young children can use English in a fun, creative and inclusive way, the hope is that this will support happy, secure learners who, in future, won’t see English as a hurdle to overcome, or just another school subject they have to study.