The news that Nick Gibb, the Minister for School Standards, is to take on responsibility for early education and childcare, including oversight of funding, support for the workforce, curriculum, quality and the early education entitlements, is of concern.
It is hard to see how these additions to his existing responsibilities can be effectively fulfilled when this has been a separate Ministerial role, particularly when he is also to add PE, school sport and the Pupil Premium to his existing portfolio.
A considerable amount of time is needed for anyone to familiarise themselves with the complexities of the early years field.
There is worrying evidence of the Minister’s lack of insight into the way that young children learn, characterised by the assumption that instruction and top down approaches are effective, and an unwillingness to pay serious attention to what research and empirical evidence tell us: I met with Nick Gibb as part of a group of representatives from the subject associations at the time he instigated a review of the primary curriculum. When I began to explain effective approaches to early literacy, the Minister put his hands over his ears and said 'I’m not listening'.
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