19th November 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The head of Ofsted Sally Morgan has said that children should attend school as young as two years old in order to give them an educational boost. She argued that disadvantaged children with poor social skills could be helped by attending school earlier. The proposed “all through” schooling would educate pupils from ages two or three to eighteen, in order to ensure that they do not fall behind by the time they start school. Morgan cited research which showed that poor under-fives are an average of 19 months behind their more affluent peers by the time they begin school, a disparity which many never manage to overcome.
Speaking at an education conference, Morgan said that children from the poorest backgrounds have poor social skills and are unable to read and communicate well. This means that they do not have the skills they need to flourish at school, and are left behind from the moment they begin. She also cited poor-parenting, low educational attainment of parents, poor diet and housing as factors which prevent children from reaching the levels of their more affluent peers by the time school begins. Her comments follow previous Ofsted assessments which have said that schools need to step in where parents are failing their children. She concluded by saying that Ofsted needed a bold move which would see schools built as strong educational providers which would go further down the system.
Many schools have offered places for three year olds in the past, with government funding providing a minimum of 15 hours a week childcare in schools. However, the rising number of children enrolling in primary school and government cuts to education funding mean that many schools do now not accept three year olds and have reduced their nursery provision to four year olds only. The head of Ofsted said that the government needs to make a strong move towards supporting educational initiatives for younger students, and had not yet taken a grip of the problem.