'Scrap EYFS rule on school teachers'
The Government should scrap the requirement to have teachers leading the EYFS in maintained nursery schools and classes, a union leader said this week.
Members of the education union Voice voted in favour of the motion to scrap the requirement to have at least one teacher leading the EYFS in maintained nursery schools and classes at their annual conference.
They also called on the Government to give 'due recognition and reward' to experienced nursery staff in schools who do not have qualified teacher status and to those with Early Years Professional Status.
Deborah Lawson, who proposed the motion, said, 'As a nursery nurse I could go on and get my early years degree and gain EYPS. It will not improve my career prospects (unless I want to become a teacher) or my terms and conditions of employment and subsequent reward. Why, because we still lack a qualification framework linked to a career structure and terms and conditions of employment and which ensures parity across professions.'
Ms Lawson gave the example of an experienced and well-qualified manager of a nursery unit in a maintained school who had written to the union to say that her job could be under threat because she was not a teacher.
From September, to comply with EYFS regulations, the nursery unit would have to employ a teacher or become the responsibility of the reception class teacher, 'who may or may not receive additional financial reward', she said.
Delegates also called on the Children's Workforce Development Council to review the training and qualifications framework for childcare and early years students.
Nursery nurse Gail Holland who proposed the motion told the conference, 'We are increasingly finding that the educational entry level for trainees is abysmal, some being unable to string a coherent sentence together let alone write one. Is this because colleges are anxious to fill their places with little or no regard to the effect it will have on the next generation?'
