Private matters

Many schools in the independent sector are exempt from the rules that govern other settings. Anne Wiltsher considers the implications for younger children On a high street in a wealthy part of south London, an off-duty early years inspector pondered over a group of three-year-olds walking along in a crocodile. 'They were wearing school uniform - shirts and ties, knickerbockers for the boys, skirts for the girls - with satchels on their backs and hats on their heads,' she says. 'They looked very pretty. But what on earth were they doing along a busy main road at 10.30am? What could they be going to that was appropriate for their age?' The annual census from April 2001 shows 40,526 two-to four-year-olds attending independent schools, accounting for about 7.5 per cent of children in the UK in this age range (the latest breakdown is for 2000). The early years provision in these schools varies considerably. Early years consultant Margaret Edgington says that many are doing 'more creative, exciting things than in the maintained sector and they mustn't be stereotyped'. But there are worries that some pre-preps, as they are known, are introducing too formal a curriculum, with undue emphasis on sitting at tables, writing and 'doing sums'.