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Analysis: What does 'ready for school' mean?

A new emphasis on formal educational attainment rather than social and communication skills could be a backward step, as Mary Evans hears.

The phrase 'readiness for school', which is cropping up with increasing regularity in policy documents and ministerial pronouncements, is raising alarm bells in the early years sector.

Part of the problem is that there is no clear definition of the term and with both the Early Years Foundation Stage and the school curriculum undergoing reviews, the old certainties of what is to be expected of young children when they start school have been cast into doubt.

To one person, the phrase can mean the expectation that a child has the necessary social, language and emotional skills to manage the transition from reception to a play-based curriculum in year one; in the eyes of another, it can mean that a child has the specific literacy and numeracy skills to knuckle down to formal instruction in the 3Rs.

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