Children not to start school until age 6

[JamMakingWannaBe]

The SNP have made their usual headline grabbing decisions at their Party Conference without the detail.

How on Earth are parents, expectant parents and "thinking about becoming a parent" meant to plan?

Will we move to an English type system where kids have to be aged 6 by the start of Primary 1 (nominally 20 August) so September born kids are actually going to be nearly 7 before they start a formal education?

Will their age 3-6 kindergartens be in existing nurseries? Will this be compulsory pre-school education? If so, have they consulted nurseries on this? (I'm guessing not)

What will be the hours of any pre-school education? If it's currently 30 hours a week from the term after a child turns 3, will that be the case until they start school (at possibly at nearly age 7)?

There are bound to be parents waiting until their child starts school so they can start saving on the childcare bill and this will scupper those plans.

I'm so glad I no longer have kids this age - btw I thought the situation we had now with deferral being relatively easy and right for some children was working well. I'm a bit sad to see everyone being forced into a one size fits all later start.

I'd be more concerned about the effect on academics. English has an exceptionally difficult writing system, and kids in Anglophone nations take a long time before they can (say) read a passage in a textbook with comprehension, or understand a word problem in maths, or write down instructions on the board.

Because the phonics of English are so difficult to master, it's hard for parents, especially poorly educated ones, to informally teach kids literacy at home or leave them to pick it up by themselves, which tend to happen a lot in countries with simpler writing systems.

I don't think it actually changes anything. It talks about p1 being replaced with a play based additional year. In fact almost all schools run play based p1 at the moment anyway and some extend this to p2.

I'm assuming this is a cost cutting exercise as children will be in 1 more year of childcare but the funded hours may be less than school hours and childcare staff are paid less than teachers.

And agree most P1 is playbased anyway.

They’ve been moving towards this for years, with P1 being more and more play-based. It’s much better for kids’ educational progress and it won’t make a joy of difference to childcare.

I’m not a huge SNP supporter but jeezo, if they’ve got a different policy then at least look into it before savaging it.

Ha ironic autocorrect there - it won’t make a JOT of difference.

It will, however, make a great joy of difference to the kids!

It will likely be based on Scandinavian model of starting formal schooling later but with quality kindergarten education. We seem to like all things Scandinavian at the moment!

Agree it will just be an extension of play based P1. Will save money too if tbey save on P1 teachers in every school

I am in favour of not starting formal education until later but I think the Scandinavian models usually involve highly skilled, well qualified and paid staff who have a solid grounding/background in early years education. It is not cheap to do this properly.

Given the track record of SG I am not confident of their ability to deliver in practice

The quality of staff is the main issue because children need some engagement even in play. But delaying the start of formal schooling will benefit more children than the current situation with children as young as 3 being “prepared” for the start of school when they have quite a lot of social development still outstanding.

It’s is frustrating. If you want a quality kindergarten model you don’t save money by employing in qualified adults! Kindergarten teachers are still skilled teachers and deserve to be paid as such.

In fact, if it is play based and child led to work well it needs more qualified adults not less!

I mean, the c f e was problematic in p1, p2 due to staffing issues, staffing issues haven't improved - I really wonder how even if you're onboard with this as a sentiment you think quality will be delivered.

Would it be like wales maybe? In wales we have foundation phase up to year 2 (age 7) where it is mostly play based learning and children do focussed tasks in small groups. Different to England who have foundation stage but only up to reception and then more formal learning in years 1 and 2.

Staffing issues? What do you mean?

Thankfully this won't affect my dd.
Both of mine were ready for school well before 6.

readsalotgirl63 · Today 09:41
I am in favour of not starting formal education until later but I think the Scandinavian models usually involve highly skilled, well qualified and paid staff who have a solid grounding/background in early years education. It is not cheap to do this properly.

Given the track record of SG I am not confident of their ability to deliver in practice“

this. It will be done in the cheap in the UK, obviously.

I think it's great. I didn't put my child in school until age 6. She's ready now and loving it. I think 5 is too young.

Inability to hire TAs and pay them a good wage for one.

I was glad one of mine started later, I just think flexibility is better than making one size fit all.

My concern is that children who are advanced will be held behind and become frustrated. My february born DD started school at 4.5 and she was more than ready compared to many of her March born peers and continues to do better academically. She would have been frustrated with another year of nursery.

One report I read suggested kindergarten to age 6 and then 6 years of Primary education - rather than 7.

The devil will be in the detail.

How many hours of kindergarten will be offered, will it be compulsory, will this be term time only, in what buildings/locations and what qualifications will staff have?

I appreciate they aim to close the attainment gap but it could actually get wider if some 5 yo start being taught by their parents at home.

Well, we're still waiting for the class sizes of 18 so....

It needs to be properly funded. If it was properly funded, with teachers in the kindergarten, small class sizes and adequate provision for ASN, it would be incredible. If it's just leave kids in nurseries for another year, it will be devastating for the attainment gap.

My son is in p4 and up until now they've done 'play is the way' and free-flow learning. This is the first year that he's had desks in his classroom for example.

I only have the experience of my eldest child to compare with and this cohort have also covid to contend with, I can see the value in the play based approach but it's also had it's challenges. I like Scandinavian model but it certainly needs to be resourced properly and staff need trained in how to deliver learning in that way.

Also we had the option to defer him and he would have benefitted but we simply couldn't afford it, another year or nursery fees would have crippled us financially. The LA nursery hours didn't fit our working pattern so we had to pay for private care and wraparound, we couldn't do another year of that. I worry that this will cause a raft of childcare issues for parents to navigate.

Delaying school is fine in countries where the writing system is relatively easy to learn and where you can easily rely on parents to fill in gaps at home. It has a poor track record of working in countries where kids have to get to grips with schoolwork in English (=flipping nightmare to learn to read smoothly and the stupid spelling takes years to learn) and where there are higher rates of inequality and deprivation.

So far, the soft-focus Scandi approach to education hasn't worked well in Scotland, judging by Scotland's performance in terms of international assessments and the attainment gap.

I'm not saying the English approach to edu is great either (I can think of lots of things that are less than ideal), But I think Scotland (and Wales) need to decide whether they want to be nice/cosy, or whether they want to reduce the attainment gap and be internationally competitive.

Hasn't the Welsh Curriculum changed this year? There's no more KS1 and KS2 anymore.

Won't happen. In the same way as the classes of 20 in P1-P3 won;t happen.

Or they will rename P1 as Advanced Kindergarten or something.