Early years experts criticise toddler schooling idea

Speaking at a conference in London this week, Ofsted chair Baroness Sally Morgan said she wanted to see children given access to formal education within schools at a much younger age.

She said children from areas of high deprivation would particularly benefit from the move as they are more likely to have low social skills and not be ready to learn when they enter school at the age of four.

Her vision includes more all-through schools for toddlers through to 18-year-olds.
 
But Pre-school Learning Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch described her proposals as “beyond belief”.

He said: “Social inequality needs to be addressed in many ways and taking very young children away from their parents and placing in formal schooling is not the answer.”

Early years education psychologist Jo Van Herwefen, of Kingston University, also disagrees with Morgan, saying children aged two and three are developmentally too young for such a move.

She said: “Formal learning is extremely difficult as children's working memory and language abilities are still developing.

“Young children are not mini-adults who can sit formal tests and exams. We need to allow them to explore and to nurture their natural passion for learning. Forcing children to learn in formal settings and sit tests regularly can risk creating performance anxiety and an aversion to learning later on in life.”

Instead she says the focus of two- to three-year-old education should be on play in a nursery setting.

A Department for Education spokeswoman says that the government agrees that teacher-led early years education “has a positive impact on children, especially on those from low-income backgrounds”.

She added: “That is why we are making it easier for schools to take children from the age of two by removing the requirement on them to register separately with Ofsted when doing so, and introducing 15 hours of free early education for 240,000 of the poorest two-year-olds.”