Opinion: Letters

READING READINESS

I read with interest the letter from Debbie Chambers (4 March) in response to 'No grounds for learning to read at five, says researcher' (News, 14 January), reporting research conducted by myself and others. I am pleased that the points in her letter have been raised because three assertions in her letter are well worth considering.

The first assertion is that children who do not read, when they could have learned to, 'will miss out on a lot of constructive language development, social confidence and maturity and years of pleasure'. It is highly unlikely that children's language is improved by reading, until they are in their fourth or fifth year of school, simply because the richness of language found in books that young children read is inferior to what they could obtain from oral discourse. Social confidence and pleasure can be gained in many ways during childhood - without touching a book. If social confidence is undermined by not reading early, then that must be the fault of the educators and parents more than the child.

Second, willingness is not the same as readiness. Children are highly imitative creatures and I wonder whether this is often forgotten. Although a child may show willingness for an activity (for example, slicing pumpkin), this does not mean that the time is right to do so. Interestingly, there is a wealth of evidence suggesting that older children master reading skills more readily, thus calling into question whether one can describe younger children as 'ready'.

Finally, I suggest that reading is a skill that is not like walking or sitting. Reading involves translating inner and outer experiences into abstract symbols (that is, letters), which rely on the intellect to be deciphered. The question then is whether this earlier stimulation of the intellect really helps children's development. Interestingly, research from Professor Rebecca Marcon suggests that children in academically focused pre-school have initially slightly lesser development of motor, language and social skills, and even lesser academic achievement later on.

Dr Sebastian Suggate, researcher in psychology, University of Wuerzburg, Germany

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EXEMPTION PUZZLE

QCDA are confused - aren't we all? David McVean's response (Letters, 4 March) to 'Exempt Steiner school outstanding' (News, 21 January) exemplifies the complexity of the exemptions process and the pitfalls built into policy regarding this part of the EYFS.

While the assertion 'No applications that have come through the QCDA have taken more than 20 weeks' is, I am sure, correct, Mr McVean fails to reckon with the total time for applications to be processed. Overburdened local authority departments have not infrequently sat on some applications and in some cases have admitted to puzzlement about their role.

The letter also fails to recognise the difficulty posed for inspection providers and settings receiving inspection. When an exemption request has been made on the grounds of educational philosophy and an inspection is due during the time this is being dealt with, Ofsted itself has taken a sensible and pragmatic approach. From the perspective of QCDA, this is untidy, but necessary given that the process of exemption, in seeking to be seen to be 'robust', succeeds so superbly in being unwieldy.

We certainly trust that Mr McVean, as the new Director of Curriculum Development, will prove equal to his words. Unfortunately, he has not been dealt a helpful hand of cards. The way the EYFS was introduced has created much unnecessary confusion, with a certain amount of back-tracking and ad-hoc solutions. The fact that independent schools with early childhood departments are registered with DCSF while free-standing early years settings have to register with Ofsted (which in this case makes them both registrar and overseer of regulation, a potentially compromising combination) is an example of the sort of the organisational incoherence that so often bedevils the work of practical educators.

Kevin Avison, executive officer, Steiner Waldorf Advisory Service, Stourbridge, West Midlands

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