Literacy is defined as the ability to create and to make sense of symbolic forms of communication. (Sara, 2009).

Literacy is essential to children as it allows children to learn to read and wrote for all other educational subjects and to understand information whether it is written or verbal, without literacy skills the ability to read and write would be a struggle in the world and people would be unable to reach their full potential in being parents and employees. As well as just reading and writing, literacy also consists of speaking and listerning skills. Literacy begins at a very early stage for children as they begin to absorb sounds and rhythms surrounded by them at the age of two months and respond with a variety of sounds such as coos and gargles. However this soon starts to develop while they grow up and begin to responding to others using the words they have heard from either a nursery rhyme or from the television, while children grow up they start to read books and start to notice words that they have seen before by repeating the word with the same letter. Education in the 19th centaury was a major political issue in Europe as it was taught very differently to how it is now. Children started working at a very young age to provide for their families, but this soon started to change as the government made it compulsory for children to go to school for two hours each day in 1833. However between the wars schools were split separately so Grammar schools was for the more academic pupils, Secondary Modern schools for the more practical and non academic style of education for specialist practical education. Thirty-Seven years later, the Elementary Education was bought in and school boards were introduced to create new schools and pay fees for children who could not afford it. Between 1880 and 1918; the Local Education Authority was created to organise funding, employ teaches and allocate school places. The act also included schools having additional services such as medical inspectors and assistants for pupils with special needs. http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/childrens_lives/education_creativity/educatio n_england/index.html In 1994, Rab Butler introduced the Education Act as an attempt to create structure for the education system. The Education Act provided free schooling and raised the school leaving age to 15, but was

increased to 16 by the 1973 Education Act. In 1988 the Education act was reformed which introduced the National Curriculum that ensured pupils had a basic level of education, as this is because the government grew concerned about the standards of the education as there was not enough organisation within what was being taught in a lesson. Although the National Curriculum brought in great organisation and improved childrens ability in being able to read and write with great support. Charles Handy, a philosopher in behaviour quoted Instead of National Curriculum for education, what is really needed is an individual curriculum for every child. This could be as each child could learn differently instead of following the National Curriculum and at that pace. http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/X0003B74E/ Before the National Curriculum was initiated there was no plans on what had to be taught so instead the teachers were allowed to teach exactly what they wanted to but including Mathematics, English and Physical Education. In 1997, the National Literacy Strategy was brought into action by the government as the Literacy Standards in the UK had no improved since the 1940s as 63% of children were reaching the standard marks of English, to improve the results a literacy target of 80% was set to reach which improved as the National Curriculum set out targets for each child to achieve at the end of every school year. The targets would come into different levels such as Level one, two and three within speaking and listening, reading and writing. Speaking and listening would help children to speak with confidence and respond appropriately, reading and writing will help to recognise familiar words in simple texts and be aware of how to use full stops. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/He lpingYourChildToLearn/DG_4016579 The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) was launched in 2007 but came into practice in 2008 for all children aged form birth to five years, the aim for the EYFS was to help young children achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes of staying safe, being healthy, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution, and achieving economic wellbeing. (Department for Education 2008, p7) also this was a chance for practitioners to have clear evidence about the childs development throughout the curriculum year.

Department for Education (2008). Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Nottingham: DCSF Publications.