The requirement of the Early Years Foundation Stage to have qualified teachers in maintained nursery schools and classes is being seen by many as a mixed blessing.
While early years specialists welcome the re-affirmation of the importance of having qualified teachers in nursery units, there are fears that in the scramble to comply with the introduction of the EYFS, the sector could lose countless experienced nursery nurses, and schools could exploit new loopholes to balance their budgets, such as extending teacher-pupil ratios outside the nursery.
'It has actually been part of a head teacher's conditions of service for some time to ensure that there are teachers in all classes in the Foundation Stage,' says early years consultant Margaret Edgington. 'In some schools, to save money they have taken teachers out of the nursery. That should never have been allowed to happen.
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