Early Education's Pat Wills, who is headteacher of Claremont Primary School in Blackpool, Lancashire, said, 'Look at the number of children living in poverty. In these families the most important considerations are feeding, housing and clothing the family, with education coming very low down in the list of priorities.'
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph on 31 August, Ofsted's chief inspector David Bell said, 'It is difficult to get hard statistical evidence on what is happening across the country, but if you talk to a lot of primary teachers, as I do, they will say that youngsters appear less well-prepared for school than they have ever been before.
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