Save our Maintained Nursery Schools Week of Action, 10-14 November 2014 Press release Hornsea Nursery School Join the national campaign to ensure children receive the very best early years education. Claire White Headteacher “in the East Riding nursery schools are well supported and their value regarding the exceptional high quality education they provide is recognised. Sadly this is not the case in all authorities. Nursery schools provide so much more than simply a fantastic education, they provide a life line for many parents. Many local families depend on high-quality early years provision to give their young children the best possible start to life, to enable parents to work and train, and to provide early help to overcomes difficulties and this only covers a small amount of what they do. To launch the campaign week MP Graham Stuart will be visiting the nursery school on Friday 7th to see the wonderful work in action. We will then be having a ‘Creative Context’ week which will finish with an art exhibition to which the Director of Education, the LA Portfolio holder amongst other educational advisors will be attending. I urge any parent, potential parent, any person that cares to support the campaign and ensure our children continue to have the opportunity to attend the very best and have the start to their educational journey they deserve.” For more information and how you can help https://early-education.org.uk/maintained-nursery-schools-month-action ncrne.squarespace/ Notes PLEASE READ: 1. The National Campaign for Real Nursery Education, TACTYC, and Early Education are holding a shared week of action starting Monday 10 November to highlight the unique contribution made by Maintained Nursery Schools to early years provision, and the risk that this could soon be lost. 2. The number of local authority maintained nursery schools in England has fallen from around 600 in 1987 to just over 400 today. Most have no certainty about their future funding, despite being consistently higher rated by Ofsted than the rest of the early years sector or schools. Maintained nursery schools are funded by local authorities, which are facing further serious cuts to their budgets in the next few years. Some will be tempted to cut funding for maintained nursery schools in favour of cheaper alternatives. 3. According to Ofsted, maintained nursery schools are the highest rated part of the school or early years system (Ofsted Early Years Annual Report 2012-13), but the number of them has fallen from around 600 in 1987 to just over 400 today. Most have no certainty about their future funding, despite their quality. 4. Research has also shown that early education – and particularly high quality early education – has an impact throughout children’s schooling, including on their GCSE results and their likelihood of going on to further study (DfE 2014 - https://gov.uk/government/publications/influences-on-students-development-at-age-16 ) 5. Nursery Schools cost more per child, but they do far more than educate individual children - they also contribute to raising standards across the early years sector. Losing these centres of excellence will be a loss for all children and families, and for practitioners working across the early years sector, who benefit from training and development opportunities and ongoing research taking place in nursery schools across the country. 5. The week of action is showcasing the distinctive strengths of maintained nursery schools including: • better outcomes for children in disadvantaged areas • expertise in supporting children with SEN and disabilities • a workforce with in-depth specialist knowledge of early childhood education acting as centres for training and development across the sector eg through the Teaching Schools initiative. 6. Both Elizabeth Truss and her successor Sam Gyimah have said it would be “invidious” of government to ringfence funding for nursery schools in preference to nursery classes in primary schools, or to give extra funding to local authorities which have them when others have none. We argue that on the contrary, it is vital that government saves these beacons of excellence for the good of all. 7. For more information about the national campaign contact Beatrice Merrick, Chief Executive of Early Education (e: [email protected] or tel: 020 7539 5400) Early Education (The British Association for Early Childhood Education) is the leading independent national charity for early years practitioners and parents, campaigning for the right of all children to education of the highest quality.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 22:53:01 +0000
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