Opinion: Letters

The increase in the free entitlement to 15 hours a week from September has meant more nursery education for most children. However, for the three- and four-year-olds attending Newcastle's maintained nursery schools (rated outstanding by Ofsted) it represents a cut, as these settings have always provided full-time education.

I hope Nursery World readers will back us in our campaign to save our full-time places, as cutting our excellent provision will, I fear, only disadvantage our children, their families and our community.

At present, our children make huge progress across all areas of learning within a safe environment, where staff are highly trained and highly motivated and treat children as individuals. Under the reduced hours, children will leave nursery without the same raft of skills and abilities needed to embrace school life and cope with its pressures.

And won't our curriculum, which has for 30 years provided children with stimulation, excitement and breadth of experience, lose some of its richness? I think the answer to this is clear!

Families, too, will have to change their plans. Without a full-time place for their child, parents will be less able to go back into work or further education, so prolonging their time on benefits and resulting in a bleaker future for the children.

At present, we encourage parents to believe in themselves through parent programmes, workshops and volunteer work, and by providing a sympathetic ear. But will we be able to continue with the same depth of support, so desperately needed by many of our parents?

There is also the fear that parents with mental health problems or negative attitudes to education will be less likely to bring their child to nursery for the sake of a couple of hours a day. The result will be many more children slipping through the net unnoticed, as we have seen in so many media reports of late.

The children's health will be affected as well. At Walkergate, we provide healthy meals, daily cookery sessions for the children, cookery classes for parents and a fan- tastic outdoor environment that encourages physical activity.

Together, these experiences keep our children healthy, combat obesity and educate children and parents in the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. After all, is this not one of the statements from the Every Child Matters agenda? But again, will we be able to provide as much from now on?

As for the community, I believe the reduced hours will perpetuate the cycle of poverty and create negative images of education.

Nor will staff escape the effects of the change, as the cut will mean job losses. How sad, that people who have built up such excellent practice and are passionate about providing a positive future for young children are to be rewarded by redundancy.

Jenny Parker (teacher), Walkergate Early Years, Newcastle upon Tyne

CACHE AND LEVEL 3

Further to the article 'Rethink Level 3 proposals' (Analysis, 24 September), I would like to provide some clarification with regards to the size of the new Level 3 childcare qualification being developed by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC).

The article mentioned the CACHE website, which has information on the learning hours/credit values for this new qualification, as proposed by the CWDC. However, there is a slight discrepancy, as the article suggests that 'the CACHE website states that the new course will comprise 36+ credits'. The CWDC has advised us that it is targeting 63 credits (equivalent to 630 learning hours) for this qualification, and this is reflected on the CACHE website Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) news pages.

At CACHE, we appreciate that those within the sector are very keen for further information to be released and confirmed, which is why we have developed QCF update pages on our website. As soon as we receive further news from CWDC on the structure and plans for the new Level 3 Diploma, this will be added to these pages.

Jill Barnes, Director of Portfolio Development, CACHE

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