News Insight: Early Years - Nurseries fear early primary entry

When Sir Jim Rose produced an interim report on his government-commissioned review of the primary curriculum, he ruffled the feathers of the early years sector with his vision to abolish staggered entry into primary schools.

Last month Rose, former director of inspections at Ofsted, recommended that "entry into reception class in the September immediately following a child's fourth birthday should become the norm".

Despite his emphasis on maintaining a play-based curriculum for younger children, experts have raised concerns that big classrooms and an academic environment would be too much too soon, especially for children born in the summer.

But the recommendation could also have repercussions for private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nursery providers. If all children in England started school the September after they turned four, many PVI nurseries would be forced to close.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, says: "Making it the norm for children to move into reception at four would be detrimental to the sustainability of providers, many of whom are already seeing falling numbers due to extended maternity and flexible working rights."

Early admissions

Sally Orr, head of early years at Hertfordshire County Council, says Rose's recommendations would exacerbate an existing problem. She believes parents, worried about getting their children into the school of their choice, see early admissions as a way to guarantee a place. The result is that nurseries will lose a large proportion of their children a term or two earlier.

A number of pre-school managers in Hertfordshire told CYP Now that parents are moving their children into school nursery classes at age three in a bid to get a place in the reception class. "We will have to fill the setting with two-year-olds," says Stephanie Head, manager of Grange Tiny Hands Pre-school in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. "They require higher adult to child ratios, so that will mean more staff and more wages." Two-year-olds are required to have one adult for every four children, while three- and four-year-olds require one for every eight.

The sustainability of PVI providers is largely underpinned by the government's offer of 12.5 hours of free early learning for every three- and four-year-old. Almost every parent has access to the free entitlement. Head says that, without those funded children, she may eventually be forced to close her nursery.

One nursery manager in Kent, who did not want to be identified, has already seen occupancy suffer. September school admissions are already the norm for four-year-olds in Kent, and she expects to lose half her pre-school class in September, before accounting for those who may move onto school nursery classes.

City of York Council has a policy that includes a deferred school entry system, allowing parents to secure a school place and use it at a later date. But Ken McArthur, who owns Polly Anna's Day Care Nursery in York, says parents are largely unaware of this option. He argues that a setting full of two-year-olds is not sustainable. "We cross-subsidise the profit we make from the three- and four-year-olds to fund the extra staff needed for the two-year-olds."

Improving quality

The government underlined its commitment to improving quality in early years settings in last week's refreshed childcare strategy. The document detailed plans to make it a legal requirement for all settings to be graduate-led and all practitioners to be qualified to at least A-level standard by 2015.

Although McArthur is behind this commitment, he says it would be hard to justify paying a graduate leader if they missed out on children funded by the free entitlement. "I accept the graduate leader is there for everyone," he says. "But the government only pays me for the three- and four-year-olds."

The Department for Children, Schools and Families will not act upon any recommendations until the publication of Rose's final report, due in March.

THE 4-YEAR-OLDS PROBLEM

Sir Jim Rose recommends: "entry into reception class in the September immediately following a child's fourth birthday should become the norm". But providers are concerned that this will give parents further impetus to get children into the school of their choice as early as possible

- Many providers will also lose their three-year-olds earlier, as parents move them into school nursery classes in a further bid to guarantee a place

- Three- and four-year-olds are integral to a setting's sustainability. The free entitlement encourages parents to access local childcare, and these children require a lower ratio of staff than babies and two-year-olds

- Providers will be forced to fill their settings with two-year-olds, meaning more money is spent on wages

- Without the money from three- and four-year-olds, settings will lack the profit margins required to finance the extra staff required for two-year-olds

- Without these profits, settings will have no choice but to recoup the money through higher fees, which parents will not be able to afford.