Children are arriving at school still wearing nappies or unable to use a knife and fork. Yet early years education is not equipped to close the gap | David Bell
Friday 5th January 2024
The babies of the pandemic are in crisis. After the Covid years, this vital sector needs a complete overhaul
A baby born in the midst of the Covid pandemic is now three years old. Just think of those crucial first years of a child’s life: meeting family, forming attachments, learning to walk and to talk, making your first friends. During successive lockdowns, many of these children missed these crucial experiences. It’s no wonder that headteachers have spoken of children arriving at school who are still wearing nappies, whose communication abilities are limited, or who are still unable to use a knife and fork. Politicians say they want to give every child the best start, but when you scratch beneath this rhetoric, it quickly becomes clear that the government is failing in this ambition.
Parents are struggling to pay eye-watering childcare costs, while many nurseries are going out of business at alarming rates. New figures show that fewer two-year-old children are reaching expected standards of development this year, compared with last. The gap in learning between children from better- and worse-off households is growing at age five and at each stage of education. And that gap is even greater for children with special educational needs, who are arriving at school with their learning and development almost a year behind their friends.
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