Government efforts to forge closer ties between early years providers and schools took another step forward earlier this month when childcare minister Elizabeth Truss announced an expansion of a little-known peer support programme that links high-performing settings with struggling ones.
Truss wants experienced teachers to lead a self-improving system for the early years, working with nurseries to enhance outcomes for disadvantaged children.
She says the model will be delivered by teaching schools and is about creating opportunities for professional development, rather than placing children in school at an earlier age.
But the announcement came just days after Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw called for schools to be given the lead in shaping early years education, and has led to further concerns being raised by early years organisations about the "schoolification" of childcare.
Launched by the National College for Teaching and Leadership in September 2011, the Teaching Schools programme sees schools judged "outstanding"
in their most recent Ofsted inspection providing one-to-one mentoring and support to staff from weaker settings in their area.
The programme, which has six key priorities (see below), has been adopted across nursery, primary and secondary schools with the overarching aim of improving education outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Truss says there are now more than 100 teaching schools with nurseries working in this way, as well as 1,000 schools with nurseries linked to teaching school alliances and 16 independent nurseries that have been designated as teaching schools. So far, there appears to be little evidence about the impact of the model and how it improves outcomes for disadvantaged children.
The University of Nottingham recently published the first-year findings of a two-year study examining the effectiveness of the teaching schools and their role in improving the quality of education.
Lack of detail
But the evaluation, which summarised the work of 18 teaching school alliances, including eight primary schools with nurseries, fails to go into detail about the partnerships or the outcomes for struggling nurseries. Instead, it makes general comments about the alliances and notes that they have "made a good start".
One of these alliances, the Bristol Early Years Teaching Consortium, which is made up of three "outstanding" nursery schools whose head teachers work closely with weaker nursery schools, is adamant it is making a difference.
The schools offer consultancy support and research opportunities to other settings, and over the past year have provided support to more than 800 practitioners.
Sally Jaeckle, early years strategic lead at Bristol City Council, oversees the management of the consortium and supports the three teaching schools to provide support to the sector, as well as funding specialist leaders of education to support practitioners in weaker settings.
"We have a voluntary organisation we've commissioned to deliver functional skills," she explains. "We've actually commissioned for the teaching schools so they have got that expertise."
In addition, Jaeckle says the authority plays a key co-ordinating role and is developing a research and development website where practitioners supported by teaching schools will be able to access examples of best practice.
"We've a highly respected approach to quality improvement across the sector, but I believe the downside of teaching schools is if they all do their own thing it can be a fragmented offer - for this model to work effectively there needs to be this local authority role," she says.
Divided reaction
However, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, has reservations about whether teaching schools have the specialist skills needed to help early years providers.
"It remains unclear whether or not teaching school professionals will be expected to have early years training and experience," he says. "If this is not the case, then this is a very flawed proposal indeed as there is then a risk that these teachers may, with the best intentions, try to impose methods on early years practitioners that are simply not suitable or age-appropriate.
"The government continues to fixate on giving schools a greater role in the early years, but surely it would make far more sense to focus on attracting, retaining and empowering early years leaders."
By contrast, Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), welcomes the model as a way of developing partnerships between schools and nurseries - rather than children starting school at a younger age.
"We would encourage a partnership between schools and nurseries," she says. "Our latest annual nursery survey showed that 42 per cent of nurseries are already working in partnership with nurseries and we would like to see that grow.
"Rather than replicating what is already available on the doorstep, by working with high-quality nurseries, schools can help provide the best possible care for vulnerable children," she adds.
Support for practitioners
Annaliese Briggs, education research fellow at Policy Exchange, says schools' larger size means they are well-placed to support practitioners working in nurseries.
She explains: "The early years sector traditionally has a tough time taking on big initiatives, such as academy status and now teaching school alliances. This is because nurseries tend to be small and lack the capacity and resources to reorganise themselves, unlike their colleagues in the primary and secondary sectors," she explains.
"Nurseries have joined teaching school alliances as a consequence of others reaching out to them, which can mean their needs are sidelined.
"This policy is young, but as it matures we hope to see many more early years providers emerge from the margins and club together to address their sector-specific needs."
Teaching school priorities
- Play a greater role in recruiting and training new entrants to the profession
- Lead peer-to-peer professional and leadership development
- Identify and develop leadership potential
- Provide support for other schools
- Designate and broker specialist leaders of education
- Engage in research and development activity
Source: Department for Education
Identify and develop leadership potentialProvide support for other schools
Designate and broker specialist leaders of education
Engage in research and development activity
Source: Department for Education
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