Nursery World - A school waiting room?

From the 30 hours to Bold Beginnings to a new Baseline pilot, the DfE is consistently ignoring our sector’s concerns, says Sue Cowley

If you spend any length of time working in education, you soon realise that politicians love to tinker with it. Secretaries of state seem determined to ‘make their mark’ during their time in office.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the legacy of Michael Gove’s tenure at the Department for Education, which is still ripping its way through the system. Over the past eight years, there have been significant changes to the content and grading of GCSEs; there have been additions to the statutory testing regime in primary schools; and the National Curriculum has undergone a facelift.

UNDER PRESSURE

However, one area that has mostly escaped attention is early years. Yes, our settings have been faced with the challenge of increasing funded hours, and there were attempts to change statutory ratios by Liz Truss.

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