looks at how schools are working the daycare market.
Schools have been involved in the education of our youngest children since the industrial revolution. The first 'infant school' in Britain was opened in 1816 by socialist reformer Robert Owen for children aged from around two with the aim of, in Owen's words, 'forming the character of the children of the working class'. Two hundred years later, Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw came full circle when he said the current privatised system was 'letting down' many children, especially those from poorer backgrounds: 'What children facing serious disadvantage need is high-quality early education from the age of two, delivered by skilled practitioners with degrees in a setting that parents can recognise and access easily. These already exist. They are called schools.'
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