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Headteachers call for delay in extending entitlement

Government plans to extend the free entitlement to 15 hours a week threaten to damage the quality of education in nursery classes in primary schools, headteachers claimed last weekend.

At the annual conference of the National Association of Headteachers inBrighton on 1-3 May, delegates from the union's Wolverhampton branchproposed a motion calling for the extension of the free entitlement tobe delayed until the outcomes of pilot schemes have been evaluated.

More than 30 local authorities have been piloting extended hours. FromSeptember, 15 hours will be offered to the 25 per cent mostdisadvantaged children in all areas, and the offer will be universalfrom September 2010.

Cheryl Gould, general secretary of the Wolverhampton branch, and head ofSt Jude's Church of England primary school in Wolverhampton, said, 'Weare not saying that we do not want the free entitlement to be extended,just that it's important that the implications are properly evaluated.There are strategic planning implications, particularly for school-basednursery classes, we need to look at before the pilots are rolled outnationally.'

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