Nursery World - Why nurseries need teachers

By Pat Wills, headteacher at Claremont Primary School in Blackpool Nursery classes have a long tradition of staffing ratios to include nursery nurses alongside teachers. However, the Government's use of Age Weighted Pupil Units to calculate nursery funding has meant cuts in budgets and the erosion of staffing ratios. This has led to a reduction in nursery teachers, as the received wisdom is that a nursery nurse qualification is sufficient to run a nursery class.

Nursery classes have a long tradition of staffing ratios to include nursery nurses alongside teachers. However, the Government's use of Age Weighted Pupil Units to calculate nursery funding has meant cuts in budgets and the erosion of staffing ratios. This has led to a reduction in nursery teachers, as the received wisdom is that a nursery nurse qualification is sufficient to run a nursery class.

I see schools as having mixed teams of individuals with a variety of qualifications. This is not dissimilar to hospital theatre teams, where everyone has a specific role and the sum of the whole makes the system effective. The key will be high-quality training for everyone to play their part to perfection.

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