Anti-EYFS website to aid exemption

Open Eye, whose members include authors Philip Pullman and Sue Palmer, has attacked the government's exemption procedure for its "bureaucratic complexity". The campaign also said the government's 34-page procedure contained a "thinly veiled threat that exempting parties could lose their funding", which was "totally unacceptable".

Other campaign activities planned include a film, an early years policy seminar to be held in London in October and an international conference in London next February. Open Eye is also exploring the possibility of a human rights-based legal challenge to aspects of the EYFS.

In an open letter, published in The Times on 24 July and signed by leading figures in education, Open Eye accused the Department for Children, Schools and Families of shelving research it had commissioned because it contradicted policy.