UK practitioners can learn much from the nurseries of San Miniato, a close neighbour and rival in excellence to Reggio Emilia, say Keir Bloomer and Bronwen Cohen, authors of a new book on the area.

San Miniato is a small town and comune (local authority) in the heart of Tuscany in Italy, with a population of just over 26,000, but it has big ideas for its youngest citizens.

Here, 40 per cent of children under the age of three attend a nido (nursery for children under three years old) or an 'integrated' service for children from birth up to the age of three. This figure rises to over 45 per cent when it includes the fact that some two-year-olds start nursery school before their third birthday. One hundred per cent of three- to five-year-olds receive early education in state-run nursery schools.

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