Petition to scrap Reception Baseline delivered to Downing Street
Today, members of the More Than a Score campaign, including Early Education’s Chief Executive, Beatrice Merrick presented a petition of 112,000 signatures to Downing Street calling for the Reception Baseline Assessment to be scrapped. View the coverage on ITV news Daisy Cooper MP, the Lib Dem spokesperson on education and Baroness Blower were present to […]
Parents and educators rally to save nursery schools
Today (Thursday 8th July 2021), parents, school leaders, teachers and advocates for the early years sector will come together in an online public rally calling for the government to commit to investing in early years education and maintained nursery schools. Maintained nursery schools play a vitally important role in early years and in our education […]
Funding pressures put at risk early years education for children with SEND
A survey of maintained nursery schools carried out by Early Education in June 2021 has found increasing demand from children with SEND in the current school year, or for September entry. However, funding constraints were expected to affect most schools’ ability to support children with SEND in due to additional funding for children with SEND […]
Early Education welcomes new Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood
We welcome today’s announcement from the Royal Foundation of the launch of its Centre for Early Childhood. The Big Change Starts Small report brings together key evidence about the importance of children’s earliest years and we support its recommendations, especially in respect of strengthening the early years workforce. It rightly identifies the importance of many different professionals in […]
140+ organisations call on government to put children at the heart of the nation’s recovery
Despite the Prime Minister’s pledges on Building Back Better and Levelling Up, the resignation of Sir Kevan Collins has highlighted a disturbing truth: supporting babies, children and young people to recover from the impact of the pandemic is still not a priority for Government investment. That’s why we’re joining the National Children’s Bureau and 140+ […]
Nursery Schools forced to make further cuts as government leaves them in the dark over key funding decisions
A new survey carried out by Early Education, NAHT, NEU and UNISON has revealed that over a third (34%) of Maintained Nursery Schools are cutting staffing and services to balance their books as a result of lost income and additional Covid costs, coupled with a lack of certainty over the funding they will receive from spring 2022. […]
Birth to 5 Matters guidance is launched
Following six months of consultation and input from across the early years sector, the Early Years Coalition tonight launches Birth to 5 Matters. The materials include a core document available as a free download, with printed copies available to purchase, and an interactive online version which includes all the text from the core document, plus additional resources, […]
Early Years Census 2021 update from DfE
The DfE have issued documents to support schools and settings to understand how to report to the Early Years Census in the context of the pandemic. The guidance states: “The intention is to ensure parity of approach to counting of funded entitlements across both the School Census and the Early Years Census.” Coronavirus-related support for […]
Covid-19 costs and loss of income could lead to mass cuts and closures
Only 10% of local authority maintained nursery schools in England are confident of being able to keep going with current funding levels, according to a survey carried out by early years charity Early Education and unions NAHT, NEU and UNISON published today (Friday). Delays to a long-promised revision of their funding formula has left these schools facing […]
Early years sector provides crucial help to families in poverty
In response to the growing concerns of its membership related to children and their families living in poverty we asked members, in May last year, to tell us what they were doing in their settings which might be described as beyond their expected work around children’s learning and development. This account, drawn from responses of […]