
As part of Labour’s ‘opportunity mission’ to give children ‘the best start in life’, Sir Keir Starmer unveiled in December that he wants to see three in four Reception children at a ‘good’ level of development by 2028.
But the early years charity’s annual school readiness report paints a bleak picture of today’s Reception classrooms, where teachers are losing an average of 2.4 hours of teaching time a day as they deal with children’s delayed development.
Forty nine percent of the 1,000 teachers who responded to the survey said that the school readiness problem is ‘getting worse’ and that one in three children are ‘not ready for school’.
The ‘covid-baby’ explanation is ‘becoming an excuse’, reported some teachers from the focus groups. ‘There’s only so long you can blame Covid for that. I’m sorry, but a lot of it comes down to parenting as well,’ explained one senior leader from the East Midlands.
The report highlighted the confusion among parents around what 'being ready' for school means and whose job it is to ensure that children develop the skills they need.
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