York leads way with learning through play

FOUR-year-old Alex Spratt is sitting with her friends at Nutkins Nursery in Stockton-on-the-Forest at the end of another busy week for her and mum Erika. Under the old system at Stockton, Alex would have been in school full-time by now, because she is nearly five.

But Stockton is one of three areas in York which have introduced a new admissions system. It is to be brought in to all the city's schools from September 2003 - and it will see full-time education delayed for children until the term after their fifth birthday.

It will also give all three to five-year-olds an entitlement to up to five free half-day sessions with either a school, nursery, playgroup or childminder in their area. And whichever they choose, parents can expect their children to be taught under the "foundation curriculum" based on "learning through play".

At the moment many children start school full-time before their fifth birthday. At first sight, the new system appears only to deny four-year-olds a term or two of free, full-time education.

But education experts insist it will actually enable teachers to focus more on the needs of each individual child. And they say that far from missing out, children's education could well benefit by not pushing them into the classroom too early.

Head teachers and governors preparing for the change are not only having to get together with their local nurseries and playgroups, and in some cases find extra premises, but they must also prepare parents for the change. So it is going to take a lot of work to introduce the new system city-wide.

At Stockton, where the primary school is working with the village's Nutkins Nursery and childminders, staff and parents seem to agree the new system appears to be working.

Alex's mum Erika, for example, has taken advantage of all that's available. Alex, who is nearly five, uses her five free sessions at school, then her mum, who works part-time, pays for five more sessions at Nutkins in the afternoon and often a childminder as well.

The five Nutkins sessions are a cost she would not have had to meet under the old system, because Alex would have been able to attend school full-time by her present age. But Erika says she is happy with the new arrangements.

Nutkins has moved into a converted caretaker's bungalow in the school grounds so it is only a few yards away from the school's front door.

Erika, who has two other daughters, says: "I think Alex would have been all right going in full-time to school this term, but she likes going to school and into Nutkins Nursery in the afternoon and it's all very well organised."

Helena Kadis spends her five free half-days at Nutkins, in preference to going to school because her mum, Christina, feels the setting suits her better.

"Helena was a premature baby and she's not going to be at the same level as other children her age until she's six.

"She's still not ready for school yet. For her it's better in this sort of environment than if she got into school in a class where there were all those kids."

Younger children at the nursery include three-year-old Bethany Tuff. Her half-days are usually arranged into two full days and one half day to suit her mum's college course.

Gillian Dransfield, manager of Nutkins Nursery, says she volunteered to get involved in the pilot scheme because she agrees with the philosophy behind it.

"Children don't profit from too formal a setting too early. If you had a very young child in an academic year he or she could have started school at four and a couple of days. Parents maybe feel they don't get as much free as they used to, but in the end they end up with a lot more.

"It is learning through play and it isn't just random, chaotic play. It's what we choose to present the children to play with and the reactions from adults around them.

"In our sessions they will have about five minutes' completely one-to-one and they have their own set of work books which they work through at their own pace. They're never comparing themselves with anyone else."

Jane Nellar, head teacher at Stockton-on-the-Forest Primary School, says the scheme seems to have gone down very well with parents.

"It gives more choice because they can elect what they want to do - there are options and choices.

"It's great for the children. The adjustment between being here in the morning and then moving across to Nutkins is going really well. In the past sometimes children who weren't ready for formal education ended up going to school in any case, partly because it was encouraged and also because there were financial constraints which had to be considered by parents. There is much more liaison between the nursery and us to make sure the learning process is on-going."

Dr Pat Broadhead, from the University of York's department of educational studies, specialises in the study of the education and care of young children. She says she does not know of any European countries where children started school as young as they do in Britain.

"I've done a lot of work with teachers of young children in Norway. They have a play-based curriculum for children up to six and a half.

"Research indicated that by the age of eight children in Norway have the same reading ability as children in this country."

She says learning through play helps children develop social skills, self-confidence and creativity and because of this when they do get on to more formal education, they learn better and faster.

'The key feature is broadening people's understanding of what play is. They learn through investigative play and it allows their creativity to come forward," says Dr Broadhead. "Normally you think of adults delivering the curriculum - this is different. If you put a pile of bricks out for a child and set an adult-determined task, they will achieve that. If you give children regular access to bricks, they will make designs at three, four and five that no adults could conceive of."

York's new admissions system, which is known as A Shared Foundation For Children, is being piloted by City of York Council in three areas: Stockton, Tang Hall and Wigginton, this year; and three more next year, in Fishergate, Hob Moor and Yearsley Grove/Huntington, before the whole city joins in in 2003. The council has won Government cash for the pilots.

Dr Broadhead adds: "In surveys parents say the most important thing for them is the happiness of their child. The Shared Foundation is about bringing happiness back into the learning environment.

"It's a wonderful initiative. The rest of the country will be looking at what's happening in York in a few years time."

How it will work:

- Children between the ages of three and five will be entitled to up to five free half-day sessions a week for 33 weeks of the year at a nursery, playgroup or childminder

- From September 2003, they will start full-time at school in the term after their fifth birthday, but may well start part-time before this, depending on the child

- Extra paid-for childcare at before and after-school clubs or by

childminders will also be made available to cater for working parents

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, October 18, 2001