Forums Forums General Forums A - Z Lifestyle Should 2yr olds to go to school?

Lady Morgan Chairwoman of Ofsted has stated she thinks that children aged 2yrs ,should start school, for the reason that many from disadvantaged backgrounds are 18 months behind when they reach the age of 5yrs.
The article is on BBC news today.

Seems rediculous to me, but wondered what others thought.
Who is going to change all the nappies or stop them eating everything in sight , eg glue, and glitter ?

So long as the babies can BE WITH MUM (or I suppose dad) then NO they should not be attending school, although I suppose a lot depends on how you define school.

An issue is of course that some parents prefer to be or need to be working. With all due respect Gran/ Grandad are not the same - and again with due respect a crèche is not the same either. It happens Mrs Snod works in a crèche and her specific role there is to look after the babies ie children 6 months to 2 years. The crèche concerned is able to give 1:1 or 1:2 max carer/ baby attention which is rare, but it is still not the same as mum.

Snod

I think parents/ carers should take youngsters to baby or toddler groups to teach it routine and socialisation.

No

At the age of 2 a child will ALWAYS be supervised by someone (no matter what the parents do the child would never simply be left at home alone) so perhaps the idea should be that attending school (nursery or whatever you want to call it) should be compulsory, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week, but that their parent/guardian/carer has to be with them too.

Children don't learn to socialise, or count, or write, or read by themselves, and the child's carer would expand their knowledge and social group as well.

Yes there are flaws with the above, but it's a general idea not a policy set out in stone.

My son has been in full time nursery since he was 10 months old and his conversational skills and knowledge are more advanced than most 3 year olds who haven't attended nursery. He's learning French and having a go at writing, if he wasn't in nursery he'd be in school part time and only just starting to learn alphabets, numbers etc.

I don't think 2 year olds starting in school on a part time basis is such a bad idea.

Id like to see childcare personnel better trained in educational methods for toddlers. I think toddlers are sponges for learning, and so often playschools /minders/nurseries, dont have the time or the correct ratios to enable them to pick up on and really use all the educational opportunities that are available during early years childcare. I like the idea of better trained better valued and better paid people looking after our littlies. Qualifications higher than a nursery nurse, but not needing full qualifications of a teacher.
That would level out the playing fields a bit too. There ARE parents who do all that one to one stuff teaching as they interact with their toddlers but loads dont , and some kids definitely miss out between 2 and when they go to school.

Some children would benefit greatly from this, they would thrive and achieve such a lot, but some would hate it, I think as an optional choice it would be a marvellous idea,

If you're referring to my post as oppose to Grannys's suggestion of a proper school, I dont mean formal teaching at all, I mean just turning as many ordinary happenings as possible in the nursery/playschool day, into learning situations in a fun way . The children would either take it on board or they wouldnt, no forcing , so nothing to hate.Montessori schools are the nearest thing we have to my suggestion, but they are few and far between,dont take under 4's anyway, and many are just not good because they have just one trained Montessori teacher, and the untrained support staff dont understand the principles.