According to the Office for National Statistics report, Provision for children under five years of age in England, January 2001, 100 per cent of four-year-olds in England - 614,900 children - are now either in school or nursery or pre-school provision. Of these, almost four in five (79 per cent) are in maintained nursery and primary schools, while 101,100 (16 per cent) attend day nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools. This leaves 4.5 per cent of four-year-olds in independent schools, while special schools account for 2,700 children - less than 0.5 per cent of four-year-olds.
The statistics show there are 226,600 three-year-olds and 882,800 four-year-olds in nursery and primary schools. But it is now impossible to tell how many are in nursery schools and how many in nursery and reception classes in primary schools.
Marion Dowling, the new president of the British Association for Early Childhood Education (BAECE), also known as Early Education, said the count left the Government open to the accusation of 'fudging the figures'. She said, 'This change means it's now more difficult to tell the number of children in maintained nursery schools, a number of which are in danger of closing.'
Early years consultant Margaret Edgington also expressed worries over how the statistics had been combined. She said, 'This looks like a way of covering up the fact that nursery schools may be closing and more children are going into reception classes.'
Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, added, 'I don't understand why the Government has combined nursery and reception figures unless it is to hide the number of children in reception. Some maintained nursery schools are on the brink of closure because of a lack of children. They have a very good reputation and it would be sad to lose them.
'The statistics also show that only 16 per cent of four-year-olds are now outside school provision. The Government can no longer deny that it has been lowering the school starting age by stealth.'
But the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said local education authorities rather than the Government should take the blame for any nursery school closures. An NUT spokeswoman said, 'Free-standing nursery schools provide high-quality provision, as do nursery classes. It's the local authorities who are looking for nursery school closures but are not able to justify it.
'We don't want to see the loss of such a resource as a result of cost-cutting by local authorities, particularly when the Government has put in 7m to support them.'
As Nursery World went to press, the Department for Education and Skills had not responded to a request to explain why both sets of figures were combined. But the report said it was because the annual schools census database did not distinguish between nursery and infant classes. It added, 'It was therefore not possible to produce the detailed information on maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained primary schools, and infant classes in maintained primary schools, that has been produced previously.'
According to the report, 89 per cent of three-year-olds are in some form of provision, with 37 per cent at a maintained nursery or primary school, and 47 per cent attending either a private or a voluntary provider.
