With extreme sadness I have to say that it seems highly likely that most maintained nursery schools will be confined to the pages of educational history within the next two years. For the past 12-15 years a very subtle but pernicious series of events and political choices has led to the highly uncertain position we find ourselves in.
Small is no longer seen to be beautiful and economic necessity, we are told, is the stricture for our demise. The future is going back (as education often seems to) in a circular fashion to the silos of the past. Maintained primary school nursery classes and children's centres will provide places for the poor and vulnerable while the remainder of the early years sector will host places for those who pay for a place in order that they can go to work in order to survive, or for a variety of other reasons.
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