Pre-school Education

(asked on 11th September 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children develop good early language skills before they reach primary school.


Answered by
Sam Gyimah Portrait
Sam Gyimah
This question was answered on 16th September 2015

The government recognises a key part of raising the standard of education for all children is to ensure they receive a good level of development in literacy and numeracy before they start school. The government has taken the following steps to ensure children are developing good early language skills before they reach primary school:

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets the prime areas of learning which early years providers must follow. This includes a focus on communication and language. The Early Years Foundation Stage requires providers to understand the needs of every child and support them as necessary to make progress. The Early Years Foundation stage is available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335504/EYFS_framework_from_1_September_2014__with_clarification_note.pdf

The numeracy and literacy skills of staff working with our youngest children are key to supporting children’s progression. We have improved early years qualifications and encouraged high-quality entrants with good numeracy and literacy skills into the profession through setting clear criteria for level 3 training courses and introducing early years initial teacher training.

The government has invested over £50 million funding through the Early Years Pupil premium, an additional £5.3 million to sector organisations under the VCS grants and a one off grant of £5 million to teaching schools and their childcare provider partners to support staff development. Many of the projects funded through departmental grants are supporting staff to develop strong pedagogical approaches to language development and early literacy.

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