I am a nursery nurse of many years experience and am working towards a degree in Early Childhood Policy and Practice, so I am well aware of research such as the EPPE project. There is an enormous amount of excellent provision in the private sector. With all the Government changes in the past few years, many settings are working at a highly professional level.
Very soon we will also have an increase in specialised graduate staff with Early Years Professional status.
Parents vote with their feet and hardly any of those from my private nursery choose to take their children to the local nursery school, partly because of the flexibility we offer and partly because they are happy with the progress that their children are making.
Nursery nurses by culture are the ones with the background of child development and learning through purposeful play. But there is still some poor provision around, and higher level qualifications can make a difference. Nursery schools, however, do not have the monopoly on high-quality care and education. I have worked in the maintained sector and learned much as part of effective teamwork. But we need to dispel the myth that QTS is an all-embracing 'magical' qualification and that only teachers in nursery schools really know what they are doing.
Alison Tomlinson, Fir Trees Kindergarten, Beverley, Yorkshire
