Ofsted has appointed 22 experts to advise it on early years research after a furore over its curriculum report Bold Beginnings earlier this year.

The Early Years Pedagogy and Practice Forum will be made up of members from nurseries, schools, universities, local authorities, consultants and other organisations.

The members include renowned academic Professor Kathy Sylva, of the University of Oxford, one of the leaders of the Effective Provision of Pre-School Primary and Secondary Education project, which followed children from age 3 until they ended school; Dr Julian Grenier, head of Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre and a former Labour and coalition government adviser on primary curriculum and early years qualifications; and Penny Tassoni, president of the PACEY, the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, and author of 40 books on early years practice.

Early years practitioners were invited to join the forum at the end of August - and the watchdog received 1,400 applications.

There has been concern about Ofsted’s approach to early years after the publication of Bold Beginnings in December 2017. The report focused on practice in Reception year, but many early years teachers felt the report was overly focused on children sitting at tables and paid little more than lip service to emotional, physical and communication development in early years.

This criticism was rejected by Ofsted, which said that the report was not about children’s learning or the curriculum, but looked at what happened in schools where children were doing well and found that they offered a wide curriculum and taught reading, writing and maths well.

The first meeting of the forum will be next month and members are expected to help to shape Ofsted’s research programme.

‘A real appetite for discussion on early years’

Gill Jones, Ofsted deputy director for early education and co-author of Bold Beginnings, said: “I am delighted so many people expressed an interest in attending this forum; it shows that there is a real appetite for in-depth discussion about the early years.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t ask everyone who applied to join the forum, but we are exploring ways that more people can get involved in the discussion online. We will be saying more about this in the new year, when the forum will look at the teaching and inspection of physical development, early literacy and maths.”

Membership of the forum is voluntary and unpaid.

And a wider group of experts will be invited, when needed, to inform the forum’s discussions on particular issues, such as maths or physical development.

The forum members are:

Nurseries and pre-schools

• Alice Baillie-Bennett, Wray Pre-School and Forest School
• Deena Billings, Busy Bees Nurseries
• Jan Davies, Prenton Penguins Nursery
   

Nursery schools and schools

• Sally Cave, Guildford Nursery School and Children’s Centre
• Sallie Dodd, South Pennine Academies in Huddersfield
• Dr Julian Grenier, Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre
• Ben Smith, St Peter and St Paul Catholic Primary School
• Trudy Spillane, Drapers’ Maylands Primary School
• Natalie Willcock, Candleby Lane Primary School
   

Universities

• Emma Bailie, University Centre Grimsby
• James Hall, University of Southampton
• Professor Kathy Sylva, University of Oxford
   

Local authorities

• Joy Barter, Barking and Dagenham Council
• Vanessa Foster, North Tyneside Council
   

Consultants

• Ann Langston
• Lala Manners
• Lisa Seymour
   

From other organisations

• Charlotte Lynch, Save the Children
• Sarah Mackenzie, Childbase Partnership
• Christine Rogers, Pre-School Learning Alliance
• Penny Tassoni, Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years
• Penny Taylor, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust