There is a serious and imminent danger that state nursery schools will only be described in the past tense. Their significance and importance as the guardians of progressive, child-centred education is increasingly overlooked and ignored.
Some would argue that their time has passed and that nursery schools have been rightly succeeded by children's centres. But children's centres come in all shapes and sizes; some of the most successful have been grown from nursery schools, while others could derive enormous benefit from the model they provide.
The success of all children's centres will depend on the skills and training of their staff. There are not yet enough of these highly trained and qualified practitioners.
The right training is crucial. Nursery staff need both a grasp of the principles of early learning and the opportunity to work alongside more experienced practitioners, in excellent settings. Nursery schools are such places and are uniquely situated to provide such training. Opportunities to observe and learn good practice will diminish if nursery schools continue to close.
GOOD PRACTICE
What do we mean by good practice? Nursery schools have developed a distinctive form of education for a distinctive stage in young children's lives. This includes recognition of individual learning patterns; the importance of play, creativity, exploration and investigation in learning; and the relationship between effective learning and children's social and emotional development. There is a particular emphasis both on providing an environment that supports children in their efforts to think and learn and on the way in which practitioners interact with children. A system of observation, documentation and assessment of children's learning has been developed and is used to plan for each child's progress.
Nursery schools have buildings and outdoor space that are geared to the learning and developmental needs of young children. They take in a balance of three- and four-year-olds and sometimes two-year-olds.
The engagement and support of parents and families has always been an integral part of nursery school education.
QUALITY OF LEARNING
Support for nursery schools in the first decade of this Government was based on evidence about the quality of learning achieved within them. That evidence is powerful and consistent, and has been confirmed by successive research projects.
Quality Matters, Ofsted's 2005-2008 review of all childcare and early education settings, excluding maintained schools, revealed that only 3 per cent were judged 'outstanding', while 57 per cent were rated 'good'. This is perhaps unsurprising - many childcare settings have low-paid and underqualified staff.
The high standard of nursery schools is confirmed annually by Ofsted inspections. 'Nursery schools are particularly effective: 96 per cent of those inspected are good or outstanding.' Of these, 49 per cent were judged outstanding in 2006-07 and 47 per cent were outstanding in 2007-08, says the Chief Inspector of Schools Annual Report 2007-2008.
TRAINING
The two inspection systems for schools and for early years settings are different and direct comparisons cannot be made. The real issue is, how can we ensure that the effective practice of the nursery school becomes universal? Without high levels of staff and training this will not be possible.
Nursery schools are already doing much to raise the level of professional practice. Almost all nursery schools provide some form of training for nursery practitioners in their locality.
In some authorities, nursery schools are working as a group to offer training and staff development to other early years staff. Others are playing important roles within the advisory service and influencing the quality of support and training. In one authority the nursery schools are funded to be the lead children's centre in their area.
Many nursery headteachers are offering management and leadership mentoring to other children's centre heads and to the PVI sector. Many are working as mentors for the leadership and management courses NPQH or NPQICL.
Leadership training is vitally important, since the quality of programmes and services for young children are closely related to effective leadership. Research shows that it is 'leadership for learning' that is necessary to achieve good outcomes for children.
Nursery headteachers are in a good position to model this leadership and support others to achieve better outcomes. A very high proportion of Ofsted judgements on nursery schools grade leadership and management as outstanding. Those headteachers of schools that are now children's centres are typically successful and experienced managers of multi-professional teams.
Nursery school staff also support Foundation Stage colleagues in primary schools. There are proposals to reorganise teaching in those schools around areas of learning (interim Rose Review, 2009) with a pedagogy that emphasises play and spoken language. Nursery schools typically have expertise in these areas which could inform and influence primary practice. The requirements of the Foundation Stage Profile demand an understanding of formative assessment; nursery schools have developed this over many decades.
SCHOOL CLOSURES
In spite of DCSF school closure guidance which includes a presumption against the closure of nursery schools, local authorities are continuing to close them.
Some 100 nursery schools have closed since 1997. There are current proposals to close maintained nursery schools in Stockport, Sunderland and Blackburn with Darwen. Sunderland proposes to reorganise two primary schools with falling rolls and open a new nursery class. The closure of Hetton-le-Hole nursery school in Sunderland is a casualty of this.
The local authority does not regard replacing a nursery school with a nursery class as constituting a loss of quality. But nursery classes do not provide the same educational experience for the youngest children as nursery schools do. The staffing ratio, routines and learning environment of the nursery school create an ethos very different from that of a nursery class or unit, while the role of the specialist nursery headteacher is crucial.
Too many local authorities lost the opportunity to build their children's centres around their nursery schools and instead based them on primary schools. In some cases this has led to the closure of nursery schools. Closures reveal a lack of understanding of the value of nursery schools as a knowledge base for early childhood education and their potential as a resource within the local community.
The new single funding formula for three- and four-year-olds will be introduced by all authorities in 2010. Although it is too early to predict the full impact of this, there is undoubtedly profound and rapidly growing concern among many nursery schools that their budgets will be reduced. Nursery schools do cost more than most other provision, but they represent relatively very good value.
Most local authorities have not yet finalised their single funding formula and there is still time for the Government to remind local authorities of their clear guidance that the single funding formula does not mean a single rate for the maintained and PVI sector.
If the proposal in the report of the Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum (Rose, 2009) that all children should enter primary school the September immediately after they are four years old, is adopted, it will officially sanction a practice which is already widespread and have a grave effect on those nursery schools in local authorities that have retained two or three points of entry.
The proposal ignores a substantial body of research demonstrating the damaging effects of too-early entry to school on young children. Nursery schools will lose the balance of three- and four-year-olds which is such a strong element in their practice. The loss of four-year-olds will reduce numbers and compromise sustainability.
Nursery schools are teetering on the edge of a precipice. Both the Government and local authorities must rescue them before it is too late - not only because of the excellence of the individual schools, but for their potential as models of good practice.
The case for the expansion of nursery places and children's centres was that early intervention works. The poorest children will be less likely to underachieve and parents will be better able to support them. But the best evidence we have is that it only works if the quality is high. Closing the very centres that consistently offer the best quality is not the way to do this.
Barbara Riddell is a freelance early years adviser and Pauline Trudell is part of the National Campaign for Real Nursery Education
MORE INFORMATION
Nursery Schools Now; Maintained nursery schools in England and their role in supporting the evolution of early childhood services, published by Early Education, is at www.early-education.org.uk
