We need a little mutual respect

What a pity then that he had to behave in the same disrespectful way to childminders and nursery workers when he blamed them for thousands of young children entering school without the skills they need to learn as he showed his ignorance of how young children learn through play.

But maybe a better way would be if I told him a story. Matilda is a little girl I care for, she is only two but already she knows some number names. I noticed that when she helped me count out her pieces of fruit at snack time, or play dough shapes she had cut out, she consistently recited, 2,3,2,4.

Although it was very endearing it wasn’t helping her learning. I carried on watching her play and noticed she could copy 2, 3 and 4 and beat rhythms on a drum. Clearly she had an understanding of number, just not the order of the number names.

Matilda is an active child who learns though movement, hence the drumming. So, on the school run, we jumped over the puddles together saying, 1,2,3, whee! She loved it, and within two days she had the number names in the right order and was counting to ten.

Matilda isn’t a parrot in a cage in need of ‘structured learning’. She is child, she will develop the muscle strength to hold a pen swinging on a caring adults’ hand as she is guided over a puddle, not through rote learning sitting on a carpet, and she will have something worth writing about.

Dear Sir Michael, if you want to make children’s time with us count then respect the fact we aren’t here for the money, the power or the prestige you enjoy, we are here because we love the children and recognise their right to a childhood.

Respect means making the best of what you have got, support us and we will deliver, not the goods but healthy, happy, able children.

Over the last year all training, previously funded by the council, has been cut 100 per cent. I no longer have network support, I am on my own. l earn little over the minimum wage yet I am expected to fund my own training often at over £100 a day. Although I have been graded Outstanding my job security has been lost since the local school has opened an after school club. Sadly I now work in competition with them rather than in partnership.

If you were to respect us then maybe we would be able to respect you. Until then, I suggest you take a running jump, if you cared to do it alongside an early years worker, you might be careful to find you don’t land in the puddle.

Alison Cook is a childminder in Sheffield