I love a bit of Pink Floyd don’t you? But on a serious note OFSTED have really made me cross this morning.
By the interaction on my twitter post this morning – you are all pretty cross too!
So OFSTED’s latest findings (le sigh) suggest that Nurseries and childminders are failing to ensure children are ready to learn when they get to primary school!’
Sir Michael Wilshaw says England’s poorest children are especially badly served, as only a third reach a good level of development in pre-schools.
But with over 80% of UK nurseries (OFSTED latest report) showing a good or outstanding quality of care – isn’t this a little bit, well, blame shifting?
A small minority of children are starting school ‘unable to hold a pen’ or ‘unable to use the toilet’ but surely these skills are not the entire responsibility of nursery nurses, nursery teachers and Childminders?
For me, my child’s pre-school development is MY responsability. I don’t send Boo to nursery school five mornings a week to learn to hold a pen and use the toilet – she could do that way before she started in September.
I don’t send her to nursery to learn letters and numbers and colours – she has been learning those through through play from a young age, as has her little brother Oz. I send 
her to have fun! to play with other children her own age, to interact, to engage with other adults, and to gain the confidence to be away from me.
Play is so important for little ones. They learn through play – activities are adapted for each area of development and as a nursery nurse myself who has worked in nurseries, I know the incredible hard work that goes into caring for little ones. The planning of activities, the supporting of skills learned at home such as toilet training and learning to feed themselves. Basic skills supported. Parents supported.
Parent support is SO important. Far more important than pushing little ones into earlier education. In my opinion we should be keeping little ones away from school later!
Little ones need support – not pushing! But most importantly they need to be children – not little confoming robots! Children need to play.
Oy! OFSTED! Leave them kids alone!
April 3, 2014
Helena
It’s annoying that children are judged in their development by such arbitrary measures. My 3yo son is left handed and struggles holding a pen correctly, but he can type his name amongst other words. I was also told he doesn’t know his letters, because he hasn’t been taught phonics. *head desk*