In the interim report from the Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum, Sir Jim Rose is proposing that all children should start reception in September. If implemented, this policy could have a significant impact in areas where younger children stay in nursery until the January or April before their fifth birthday.
It could have a really bad effect on children whose development makes them unsuited to the more formal world of learning that still characterises many reception classes. It is important that we fully understand and act on the fact that the development of children in the EYFS will vary hugely from child to child. The maturity of summer-born children, and some others born earlier in the year as well, will mean that any assessment of their learning will show them to be significantly behind some of their peers. This is not a sign of poor teaching: it simply results from the variability of development and biological growth.
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