The news that Nick Gibb, the Minister for School Standards, is to take on responsibility for early education and childcare, including oversight of funding, support for the workforce, curriculum, quality and the early education entitlements, is of concern.
It is hard to see how these additions to his existing responsibilities can be effectively fulfilled when this has been a separate Ministerial role, particularly when he is also to add PE, school sport and the Pupil Premium to his existing portfolio.
A considerable amount of time is needed for anyone to familiarise themselves with the complexities of the early years field.
There is worrying evidence of the Minister’s lack of insight into the way that young children learn, characterised by the assumption that instruction and top down approaches are effective, and an unwillingness to pay serious attention to what research and empirical evidence tell us: I met with Nick Gibb as part of a group of representatives from the subject associations at the time he instigated a review of the primary curriculum. When I began to explain effective approaches to early literacy, the Minister put his hands over his ears and said 'I’m not listening'.
We have a powerful heritage of effective early education and care in the UK, which was endorsed by the Rumbold Report a generation ago, and built on by the subsequent Labour government.
It is distressing to contemplate the current counter-productive downward pressures on young children, who are avid learners but not yet pupils. These include the Year 1 phonics check, which is not leading to rising levels of literacy at the end of Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2, and the introduction of unreliable and invalid baseline assessment which cannot be justified.
There is much more to be said. I am sure the Minister will take up invitations to meet with leaders in the field, and my hope is that in the near future, he will also make time to visit a variety of settings.
I would be very happy to accompany him to look at some of the excellent, principled provision such as I have the privilege to see in my role as judge of Nursery World's Nursery of the Year.
