Opinion: Letters

In the recent White Paper 'The Importance of Teaching' (News, 25 November) the Government asserts that 'all the evidence from different education systems around the world shows that the most important factor in determining how well children do is the quality of teachers and teaching'. It sets out plans to 'create a new national network of Teaching Schools, on the model of teaching hospitals, giving outstanding schools the role of leading the training and professional development of teachers and head teachers'.

Members of the National Campaign for Real Nursery Education have campaigned for many years to stress the importance of specialist early years teachers and to promote maintained nursery schools as the equivalent of teaching hospitals for students in early years education. The vast majority of these nursery schools are also Children's Centres serving disadvantaged areas and are rated 'good' or 'outstanding' by Ofsted. But, when it comes to this White Paper, nursery schools and their highly skilled headteachers and teachers are not mentioned. In fact, it is clear from other articles in the same edition of Nursery World that their survival will be compromised by other Government initiatives such as the Single Funding Formula.