Pinky promise Research has shown that the children who do best in their GCSEs come from families that read the Financial Times. EYFS co-author Helen Moylett said, ‘The DfE and Ofsted are obsessed with vocabulary, and of course vocab is a good proxy indicator, but it is just an indicator. If you are taking external indicators as being the only thing [that matters], you could solve GCSE problems by delivering the FT to every family.’
Civil service Children’s minister Nadhim Zahawi stayed for just half of a one-hour launch of the report on nursery sustainability by an APPG earlier this month, leaving four civil servants from the DfE to face the sector. After one complained they felt they were being ‘fobbed off’, one nursery owner asked, ‘How can I have a funding rate of £4.23 in 2010 and now £4.16 nine years later?’ The response was to cite the EYNFF and ‘local authority decisions’.
Private pain Education Secretary Damian Hinds’ £22 million plan to create 1,800 school-based nursery places to boost early literacy and communication has not gone down well with private providers. Many are irked at the description of the new places as being ‘created in disadvantaged areas so more children can access high-quality early education’. One commenter added, ‘They’re investing into school-based nurseries when the funding [we] as childminders and private non-school based nurseries receive is absolutely cr*p.’
Supermarket sweep With the news more qualified staff are leaving the sector for better pay in supermarket roles, one nursery manager has been interviewed saying one member of staff has decided to swap her job for a supermarket, and another for a bar. ‘Staff are not being paid for what they achieve on a daily basis,’ said Anne-Marie Ellison, from Your Nursery in Manchester. ‘It’s a very difficult job.’
