Nursery World - To The Point - Put evidence in context

The Government's announcement that the Early Years Foundation Stage should be reviewed, 'looking at the latest evidence about children's development', makes perfect sense.

But 'evidence' is always harder to establish than we might hope. You may have read recently, for example, that research from the British Educational Suppliers Association came to the potentially significant conclusion that children in private nurseries have more time to play than those in maintained nursery schools and classes. But you cannot read this research in full unless you are a member of BESA or prepared to pay them £350. What you can tell from the press release is that their evidence comes from a survey of 510 nursery settings, who are unlikely to be a representative sample. This 'evidence' makes for a good headline, but little more.

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