Schools to link up with nurseries to boost standards

Funded through £5m of government money, the new scheme will enable local nurseries to work with the best early years teachers and school leaders to increase the quality of early years education in their area.

Teaching schools are Ofsted-rated outstanding schools that have been awarded additional funding and status to offer and facilitate training and improvement support in their area for new and experienced school staff.

All settings that take part in the initiative will be able to learn from each other in order to develop better early education and care for children and families, and support effective transitions from nursery into primary school.

Minister for childcare Sam Gyimah launched the scheme at St Pauls Nursery School in Bristol, which will receive £60,000 funding to develop programmes with local nurseries.

He said: “We know the first few years of a child’s life can be make or break in terms of how well they go on to do at school and beyond – and the sharing of expertise and best practice is vital to driving innovation and raising standards.

“This is a fantastic example of local schools, nurseries and private providers pulling together to improve the fantastic services on offer to families, helping their children to thrive.”

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) welcomed the new funding.

Purnima Tanuku, NDNA chief executive, said: "High-quality early education makes a huge difference to children's futures.

"There is great expertise and inspirational practice in private, voluntary and state early years provision and we welcome this investment by government to spread and share that expertise.

“Learning is not a one-way journey from schools to other provision and this scheme recognises the expertise private and voluntary nurseries can share with schools and one another as specialists in providing for under-fives.

“We will be urging nurseries to find out about their local programmes and get involved."

However not everybody in the sector is completely behind the concept.

The Pre-school Learning Alliance has previously raised concerns about whether teaching schools have the specialist skills needed to help early years providers.