A good read

A fundamental part of the controversy is the concern that the educational system in England is expecting too much, too soon of its youngest children. In many European countries, children do not start formal education until they are six or seven years old. Yet in England there have been examples of children entering reception classes aged just four and being expected to manage a whole literacy hour.

When the National Curriculum was introduced in 1989, lower-achieving seven-year-olds were expected to 'begin to recognise individual words or letters in familiar contexts' at the end of Key Stage 1. Currently, the early learning goal for children at the end of their reception year is that they should 'read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently'. In other words, children are expected to achieve much more than they were 13 years ago, but with two years less schooling. This is a massive change in official expectations. Yet evidence from European studies suggests that although children in England start formal schooling earlier than their counterparts, their achievements in reading at age 11 and 14 are lower.