Not so sure that they are Bold Beginnings

As a child I often caused my mother a great deal of stress by being "bold". This fearlessness was usually in the form of "answering back". I can't count the number of swipes of the tea towel I had because "I was bold". I was therefore looking forward to reading the new Ofsted report Bold Beginnings.

In my book to be bold is to be brave and fearless and do something that has with it a risk like walking across the Sahara. Sadly, the report is neither brave nor fearless. It's far too accepting of the policy of placing four years into school. It's a confusion of perspectives not sure whether to align with what is right for our children or stick to the government line, that all four years olds should go to school. There was far too much emphasis about preparing children for their school life, just accepting that it's right for four year olds to be in Reception especially given their statistics that in 2016/17, the quality of early years provision was "inadequate" in 84 schools and "requires improvement" in a further 331 of those inspected that year.