Campaign for nursery learning gets real

The National Campaign for Nursery Education has added 'Real' to its title and revamped its logo following its recent conference and annual general meeting in London last month. Vice-president and early years specialist Margaret Edgington said the new logo would 'give a clear message that quality matters'. The NCRNE welcomed Valerie Davey MP as its new president and fellow MP Phil Willis as a vice-president. Members voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution urging the Government to ensure that all of the new children's centres are led by an early years specialist with qualified teacher status and that at least one full-time early years teacher will be employed to work directly with children. The NCRNE welcomed the extension of observation-based assessment into the reception class, but the resolution expressed concern that 'the checklist style format and the scoring of individual children directly contradicts the professional principles of formative assessment', and members agreed that the Foundation Stage profile should not be used to attach a numerical score to the child.