DfE launches school-based nursery pilot
The Department for Education (DfE) has today launched a “test and learn” pilot for its planned expansion of school-based nursery provision. Under the scheme, primary
Ofsted has today launched a new five-year strategy. Elements of this which affect the early years include commitments to
Early Education welcomes Ofsted’s recognition of the importance of early years and the need to support quality improvement in the early years to give early child the best start in life. Better training for inspectors is an important starting place, as there is currently considerable inconsistency between inspections of early years in both registered provision and schools. We still hear complaints about inspectors who do not understand enough about early years pedagogy or child development, or even the EYFS Statutory Framework, and who therefore make inappropriate judgements with a damaging impact on staff and settings.
Ofsted needs to be very careful in how it uses its research and insights programme to inform its inspections. Past reports such as “Teaching and play in the early years: a balancing act” are well respected, but others such as “Bold Beginnings” or the recent research report on mathematics had a far more questionable evidence base.
Such publications also run the risk of Ofsted violating its own principle that it does not tell schools and settings how to teach by promoting a limited set of approaches or examples, or giving the impression that Ofsted wishes things to be done in a particular way. It would be far better if Ofsted avoided this top-down approach and worked in partnership with the sector to consider how it can have a supportive role in quality enhancement.
We look forward to a continued dialogue with Ofsted over how this strategy will be implemented.
The Department for Education (DfE) has today launched a “test and learn” pilot for its planned expansion of school-based nursery provision. Under the scheme, primary
Ofsted has today published its response to the “Big Listen” consultation. For the early years, it undertakes to: On the differences between early years and
We welcome the Department for Education’s announcement that the government are moving ahead with their manifesto commitment to scrap single-word Ofsted judgements for schools, effective immediately,
On 10 June, Labour announced their plans for “over three thousand new nursery classes across England to open up access to childcare hours for families”,
The Conservative Manifesto has promised to extend Family Hubs to all local authorities. This would both extend funding for the 75 local authorities where they
The Lib Dems have published their manifesto, including commitments to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law and to
A report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) today finds that the timetable for the roll-out of the new funded early education and childcare
A new campaign to boost recruitment to the early years sector in England is being launched today by the government. The government press release says:
The Department for Education has today published its response to the EYFS consultation conducted in the summer. The changes will be implemented from January 2024
DfE has today launched a consultation on the new funding rates which will apply for 2-year-olds and under 2s when the new entitlements are introduced
The Department for Education has today announced that the extra £204m for early years announced in the budget will be allocated to local authorities as
In a speech today, Kier Starmer will set out Labour’s plans to expand opportunity via five “missions” including “Early years reform – to boost child development with an
The Department for Education (DfE) is currently consulting on proposals to amend the Early Years Foundation Stage. They propose relaxing the requirements around the minimum
DfE has issued slightly more detail about the planned uplift in the hourly rates for the current and new entitlements, following the announcements in the
Today, teachers from the National Education Union are striking, including many working in nursery and reception classes. In the last week, the Department for Education
We welcome the news that our President, Professor Cathy Nutbrown, has been made a Dame in the year’s New Years Honours list. This is much
The government’s latest changes to the early years funding formulae bring two key changes which we pointed out in our response to the consultation would
DfE have today announced the early years funding settlement for 2023-24, which leaves the early years sector struggling on below inflationary increases. While an additional
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
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
Comparing figures from January 2022 and January 2020, progress is being made towards previous levels of take up of funded early education. Latest figures from
Early Education welcomes the news that the new National Plan for Music Education has been extended to cover the early years. We are glad to
The Times Education Commission has today published a report which calls for “A significant boost to early years funding targeted at the most vulnerable and
Cathy Nutbrown, President of Early Education The twelve sessions of the May Annual National Conference 2022 left me reflecting on a strong thread which I
We welcome the government’s new Sustainability and climate change strategy for education and children’s services, and that early years is reflected through a range of
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
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
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