Ofsted’s Annual Review highlights importance of early years workforce

Ofsted’s latest annual review highlights the impact of recruitment and retention challenges and finds a link between inspection outcomes and the proportion of graduates in a setting. It recognises the work which settings are doing to address the impact of the pandemic on young children. It found that 96% of providers on the early years […]

Early Years Foundation Stage: No place for men?

by Clarissa Frigerio Why are there so few men teaching in the early years? I have worked in the profession for almost 9 years, and I was lucky to teach internationally (Italy, USA, and UK). Only once in that time I worked with a man. But this should not have been a surprise, as latest […]

Priorities for England’s new early years minister

The tenth early years minister in ten years, Kelly Tolhurst, is now in post. It’s good news that early years is part of a Minister of State’s portfolio rather than given to a more junior post.  However, the rest of her brief is extensive, leaving a risk that early years is not a priority.  We […]

The Schools White Paper: highlighting the gap between early years and schools policy

Government has today published its Schools White Paper “Opportunity for all”. We welcome the fact that early years gets a few mentions: However, the “key facts” only list the numbers of children in the school system, not the 1.5m in early years provision. There is mention of where children’s outcomes are improving, but no mention […]

How do we increase the graduate workforce in Early Years?

DfE has just published new figures on the number of new entrants to Early Years Initial Teacher Training (EYITT).  This is the route that leads to Early Years Teacher Status, which does not have parity of career options to Qualified Teacher Status, despite requiring the same entry requirements and following a broadly similar programme of study.  […]

An Early Years qualification for primary school headteachers? by Julie Fisher

A call for universal expertise for applications to primary school headship Transition for children from the Reception class into Year 1 in England remains fraught with challenge. The absence of national principled guidance makes this age group particularly vulnerable to inappropriate expectations and targets. Since the introduction of the National Curriculum the pedagogical direction of […]