Your Opinion: Letters

FREE TO FANTASISE

I can completely relate to the article on aggressive play ('For real?', 15 May). Only yesterday my eight-year-old son came home from school upset because he had been put in time-out for 'fighting'.

When I asked what had happened, he explained how he and a friend had been doing wrestling scenes from 'Royal Rumble' (a DVD he got for his birthday). No-one had been hurt, but the teacher had acted on what she had seen, without allowing them to explain. When my eldest son was into Power Rangers, he too was always acting out his favourite characters.

We need to allow children the freedom to express themselves through fantasy play, only intervening when someone's safety is an issue. I think primary schools need to be educated on boys' fantasy play and allow them to rough and tumble with guidelines set.

Alison Caudwell, Busy Bees Nursery, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex

- Letter of the Week wins £30 worth of books

NOTHING TO DECLARE

Calling the Montessori School Association's conference to launch their new guide to the EYFS 'a declaration of allegiance' gives the wrong impression (Editor's View, 22 May).

Great care was taken in developing this booklet to minimise any compromise to the well-known and highly thought-of Montessori approach. The Montessori community is made up of thousands of independent practitioners and it is misleading to cite any willingness to support the EYFS as a 'declaration'. It would be sad if the Montessori interpretations of the EYFS were to be construed as support for formal learning.

Genuine Montessorians' only true allegiance is to support and nourish the natural development of children through the unique Montessori philosophy and practice. That can only come from following the child and not from imposing expectations.

The phrase 'You can lead a horse to water ...' comes to mind. Montessori education can, and sometimes does by the age of five, enable children to have a broad foundation in learning as a result of an indirect and sensitive awareness of the uniqueness of each child. Most five-year-olds are developmentally not ready to 'begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation', as outlined in the EYFS. They are ready to develop in their own way, supported by empathetic, experienced adults. Training of early years staff to EYP Status will still not change child development.

There are many contradictions in the EYFS document. On the one hand, there are phrases such as 'play-based, spontaneous activities'; on the other, 'all providers must have regard to this guidance ... if they decide to depart from it, they must be able to demonstrate that their alternative approach achieves the ends described in this guidance.' There is much ambiguity. Guidance does not mean legally required.

It would be uplifting to hear Beverley Hughes agree that the statutory framework of the EYFS needs changing. Many early years practitioners would breathe a sigh of relief to be left to use the guidance to inform and enrich their practice, with the mandatory Learning and Development framework changed to 'Aspirations'.

Enlightened practitioners agree that formal learning is inappropriate for children under six years old. Is this 'listening Government' really able to listen? If so, it can still halt the current outrage and set the record straight.

Kim Simpson, The Studio Montessori Nursery Centre, London

BIASED RATIOS

Further to 'Settings struggle to maintain ratios' (Analysis, 29 May), we have always considered that the staffing ratios between PVIs and maintained nurseries as unlevel and biased.

Ofsted and Sure Start state that if you have a qualified teacher on site, you are entitled to a 2:26 ratio. How does a teacher trained in five-plus years help with children aged three years?

Does this person have more arms and eyes in a maintained setting? If not, then surely they will encounter the same issues, dilemmas and problems as PVIs.

Simon Burman, The Pre-School Centre, Kingston-upon-Thames

- Send your letters to ... The Editor, Nursery World, 174 Hammersmith Road, London W6 7JP; letter.nw@haymarket.com; 020 8267 8402.