Professor Tina Bruce, visiting professor at the University of North London, has praised the early years curriculum in Scotland for its emphasis on learning through play and recognition of the importance of child observation.
Professor Bruce, who has just completed working with early years settings in Edinburgh (News, 31 May), said, 'Scotland has taken a very sensible approach. They have kept faith with time-honoured good practice at the same time as introducing cutting-edge good practice.
'Three-and four-year-olds are in the nursery together, and tend to move up to primary school when they are five. Younger children can watch the older ones doing more complex activities and so the children are able to learn from each other.
'There is a huge emphasis on play which is of vital importance. I believe in Scotland there is a better understanding of how children learn through play because there is a culture of observation-based assessment.
'The project was very exciting because 14 different settings worked together. I'd like to see more of that joint work in the rest of Britain.
'There are four nursery schools in the cluster and they greatly helped their colleagues to understand the curriculum, but also learnt from the health professionals about nutrition, for example, and social services reminded everyone of the importance of the care aspects - so everybody contributed to the overall learning of the cluster.'