Nursery World - To the point: Opt-outs ill-judged

At the same time that the principles of excellent early years practice have been reaffirmed in the revised EYFS, the Government is proposing to remove part of the sector from these requirements in a way that will not protect the entitlement of young children to the best provision that can be offered to them.

Claiming that it is responding to the recommendations in the Tickell review regarding exemptions from the EYFS learning and development requirements, the Government has gone far beyond the sense of that report to propose offering an ill-considered blanket exemption to swathes of independent schools.

Sadly, I suspect these schools would seek exemption to avoid the requirement that children learn through play and playful activity. In an advisory role for a local authority I once visited an independent school where I found the reception children - aged three, not four - in highly-managed, formal paper-based learning throughout the day. The reception teachers wanted to work in a different way and urged me to talk with the head. The head responded that she was not interested in what the framework said - parents chose the school because they wanted a different approach.

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