News

Date: 17.02.08

Member’s letter objecting to requirement in Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage that at least one member of staff in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes must be a school teacher.

Statutory Requirements for Staffing in Nursery Classes within Schools

 

I wish to state my objections to the requirement outlined in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, page 50:

 

"Children aged three and over in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained schools

 

"At least one member of staff must be a school teacher as defined by section 122 of the Education Act 2002 and the Education (School Teachers’ Qualification) (England) Regulations 2003."

 

This statutory requirement will obviously lead to many nursery managers/nursery nurses being made redundant nationwide. This will undoubtedly be devastating for the professional future of these highly skilled practitioners and also for early years education.

 

I am a qualified nursery nurse with 20 years’ experience in early years care and education and have worked in a variety of settings, managing pre-school playgroups and private nurseries. I have managed pre-reception classes in schools for eight years and have held the post of Nursery Manager in a Primary School for four years.

 

Throughout my career I have always ensured that I have kept up to date with all early years initiatives, and my performance management record shows continual development in my area of expertise, involvement in whole school improvements and my commitment to raising standards in early years education.

 

I have led the school through the Effective Early Learning Programme, which has led to an Investors in Children accreditation. The nursery I manage has been acknowledged as providing good provision by Ofsted and has been recognised as centre of excellence for observation and assessment by the Early Years Advisory Team in my county.

 

My job description encompasses all areas of education and care for nursery age children, in particular the understanding of health, welfare and hygiene requirements necessary to meet the duty of care responsibility. I am confident in my abilities to meet all of these duties without exception.

 

Foundation stage data show that the children, in the nursery class I manage make excellent progress and parental comments, recorded in children’s profiles and reports, indicate that parents are confident in the care and provision provided for their children and delighted with their progress.

 

As this new statutory requirement is apparently an attempt to raise standards within early years education, I would like to know how removing loyal, dedicated and highly skilled practitioners from school nurseries will achieve this aim. I would also like some clarification as to why practitioners with Early Years Professional Status can manage day nurseries but not school nurseries, when the provision and delivery of curriculum should be the same.

 

I feel it is important to emphasise the fact that BTEC and NNEB nursery nurses qualify after rigorous training courses and experiencing a wide variety of early years placements. Nursery managers have usually accumulated years of experience in a specialised field and are well equipped to care for, teach, observe and assess nursery age children.

 

In my opinion, it would be beneficial to provide established nursery managers with a ’fast track’ option to Early Years Professional Status. If they do not hold a degree qualification, they should have considerable proven experience and the support and endorsement of their head teacher and school governors. I also feel that it is important that staff managing day or school nurseries should hold the same qualifications so as to provide equality of access to care and education for all three to five year olds.

 

Finally, if considering how to raise standards in early years care and education, surely it would be sensible and advantageous to retain competent and effective members of early years teams across the country.

 

I would appreciate your support in addressing this issue and look forward with anticipation to your response.

 

Diane Powell, Nursery Manager (BTEC)

 

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