Children in the Foundation Stage are not doing as well as expected in one-third of settings in the early learning goals for communication, language and literacy, a survey by Ofsted revealed on Monday.
There were also weaknesses in childrens calculation skills, but standards were higher than anticipated in other ELG areas.
Girls did better than boys in all areas of learning. The report said that not all settings were aware enough of the impact of girls and boys different choices of play on their progress in other areas of learning.
Ofsted inspectors visited 144 early years settings in 18 local authorities to evaluate the quality of provision for children aged three to five, standards and achievement, and local authority support to settings.
Settings visited included private nurseries, childrens centres, primary schools, nursery schools and special schools.
Leadership and management of the Foundation Stage were good or better in nearly two-thirds of settings. Achievement was good in half those visited and outstanding in nine.
In settings found to have lower standards in communication, language and literacy there was inadequate support for children just starting to learn English as an additional language, and local authorities were generally not ready to support refugee and asylum-seeker families.
Miriam Rosen, Ofsteds director for education, said, Parents need to be assured that the quality of integrated learning and care is consistent, regardless of which setting their child attends. Childrens low achievement in early reading, writing and calculation in some settings must be tackled so they are able to achieve the best possible outcomes to set them on the right path for their future education.
Ofsted said the findings provide a baseline to measure the success of the Early Years Foundation Stage when it is implemented in September 2008.
The Foundation Stage: A survey of 144 settings is available at www.ofsted.gov.uk.
.