To not really get the argument for starting school much later

[Spottylu]

I keep seeing articles about how we are damaging our kids by sending them to school so early.

On the face of it, I agree, except I understood early years was all about learning through play. So without insulting any early years teachers, is it that different from the style of learning done in preschool?

I struggle to see what the alternative would be if we moved the school age intake to 7 like some of the Scandinavian countries, as I am assuming the idea isn't that a parent stops work and become a sahp unless that is their choice.

So of the alternative is just more nursery/preschool, isn't the early years system we have at least as good if not better?

thecornerstoneforteachers.com/12-myths-about-education-in-finland-debunked/

This is probably part of the reason why the Finns are able to get away with not having things like SATs and Ofsted. If you have teachers you can really really rely on and everyone has to teach to the same curriculum anyway, it is a lot easier to trust teachers to just get on with the job

Having the best of the best as teachers is why they don't need SATS and Ofsted. The Curriculum however is just the bare bones, a list of what they need to know to achieve each grade - how the teachers teach is up to them and the schools, they have a huge degree of autonomy but can be trusted with this autonomy because of the high level of training they go through before starting to teach. Some teachers use the textbooks heavily, some take a different route. DD's teacher uses the Adventure Preschool text book for her class which has been shortlisted for the Best European Learning Materials Award (it is pretty good, she brought it home at the end of the first week so I could look through it) but that's just a small part of what she teaches (they do one or two pages a week from the book) and the rest is what she and the school have thought up.

That's a good overview of the facts (and myths) nuttynoo except 6 is wrong as preschool is mandatory now (not that that makes much difference as 99% of children attended preschool before it was mandatory but now that last 1% attends as well)