Ofsted wants early years education to be a “specific strategic focus” over the next five years, its chief inspector has announced.
Amanda Spielman said in a speech that early years is “the area in which our work can have the most impact”, adding that the sector could, at times, feel “undervalued and overlooked”.
She continued: “Our curriculum reviews in schools have helped developed conceptions of high-quality education in different subjects.
“And we would like to do what we can to build the same level of evidence for early years,” she said at the Nursery World business summit yesterday (8 March).
Covid
She suggested a reason for Ofsted’s new focus was the impact of the pandemic on younger children.
Ms Spielman said it was a “stark thought” that children turning 2 “have spent their entire life in the context of a pandemic” and their early years had been “considerably different from what we have previously expected a ‘normal’ early childhood to look like”.
“Momentum around education recovery shouldn’t just start at age four,” she added.
A report published in April last year by the University of York, based on 58 primary schools, found that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of schools said pupils starting school in September needed more support than usual cohorts.
The chief inspector also referred to the delay in children’s speech and language acquisition due to the pandemic, adding it was “heartening” to see efforts to tackle this in recent inspections.
She added: “Children with poor language and communication when they get to school are less likely to do well in tests at 11; it leaves children with a lot of ground to make up.”
Reading
Ms Spielman, whose tenure was extended until the end of 2023, stressed the importance of reading aloud when talking to an early years audience.
“Listening to a well-read story is a joy most of us will remember from childhood,” she said. “It’s sensory; it’s exciting. It helps to give children a love of stories and reading, as well as some much-wanted attention.”
Play
There had been “misunderstandings” about Ofsted inspections and play, the chief inspector added.
She said: “Over the years, Ofsted has often been accused of wanting to limit the time that children spend playing in their early years. And I want to say, quite unequivocally, that this isn’t the case. Play is important. Play is fun. All children must have time to play, on their own and together.”
However, if children are learning something for the first time, “sometimes it is better to teach them explicitly”, she said.
New EYFS
Ms Spielman also emphasised that inspectors were not “looking for files full of assessment evidence on individual children”.
She said that she was pleased to see more “precision” in the early learning goals under the Department for Education’s revised early years foundation stage (EYFS), which came into force last September.
The EYFS made it clear that those goals are an assessment point at the end of the stage, which was a good thing, she said.
Over the years, assessment “has become a bit of an industry in itself, making a heavy workload for staff and often taking time and attention away from the interplay between practitioners and children, which is so crucial”, she said.
Early years inspection “used to be strongly oriented towards childcare”, but Ofsted’s new inspection framework has been “rebalanced to look more at education, as well as childcare”, she added. “That means what we’re looking for from you is to provide a rounded experience for children.”
Levelling up
Last month, the Levelling Up White Paper revealed plans to ”eradicate illiteracy and innumeracy by 2030”.
However, the target has been criticised for its lack of additional support for early years.
Natalie Perera, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), told Tes earlier this month it is “doubtful that a plan to raise national attainment by an extra quarter of pupils reaching the expected standard can be achieved by only focusing on a third of areas”.
Ms Perera also said the White Paper failed to offer additional support for early years, which “may prove costly”.
Ms Spielman said that the “aspiration for early years must be more than just a surviving sector”.
She added: “We should have a thriving sector: valued by government, cherished by parents and giving children the best possible start in life.”
