Best days of their lives

It’s that time of the year – we are sending our children off to a multitude of primary schools, fresh-faced and eager to go. Their expectation is written on their faces, partly anxious; they look as if they’re queuing up to go on a theme-park ride – not knowing quite what to expect. Parents rush about finding uniform, attending meetings and asking earnest questions about how we think they’ll cope with the demands of ‘real school’.

I politely answer we are a ‘real school’ and we have prepared them just fine. They know how to think, independently access what they need to extend their learning and have an imagination to die for. It allows them to conjure intricate stories from thin air and turn a twig into a magic wand. In short, they have learnt how to fly. With skills like that, an hour of phonics a day shouldn’t present too many problems.

I do worry, though, about them having to manage activities that aren’t age-appropriate, such as assembly – and the pressure for them to sit quietly and stop asking the questions we have encouraged them to ask and delight in.

I don’t want to run down Reception classes (I was a Reception teacher and it is honestly the hardest job in a school), but the Foundation Stage in primary is often caught between a rock and hard place. It saddens me that the view of ‘school readiness’ can reduce the most formative phase of our lives to a mere ‘preparation’ for something better – but is the future better than now? Yes, gaining mastery is wonderful, such as the power of communication with increasing symbolism, but the rush towards competence can make it difficult to cling on to the impossible and fantastic.

The OECD is beginning to ask questions; it raises concerns about ‘schoolification’ and highlights the importance of a school being ‘child ready’. The difference between a Nordic, child- centred approach and an institutional approach – fitting children into a system – has been debated for many years, but the fact is that the early years of life are so brief, so fleeting and so important – why do we not do more to celebrate childhood, rather than ensure children are ‘ready’ to do what we want, when we want them to do it? Earlier is not necessarily better.