Editor's view

The theme of what kind of learning experiences young children need runs through this week's issue of Nursery World. The Liberal Democrats have joined the call to abandon Key Stage 1 SATs, after a survey they commissioned found that more than half of seven-year-olds were suffering stress as a result of the tests (see News, page 9). This was sometimes because their parents were anxious about wanting them to succeed, but there is no doubt that the culture promoted by SATs exerts downward pressure on the Foundation Stage for formal teaching of an inappropriate nature. There is now widespread agreement among politicians, early years experts, teachers and parents that we risk harming children with this approach to education. Recent calls to use phonics as a panacea for problems with reading are also causing alarm, as our Special Report by Julian Grenier shows. The establishment view of the more early phonics, the better, goes against good Foundation Stage practice, but arises from a lack of clarity about what is needed, he argues.