Dr Julian Greniergrenier@outlook.com@juliangrenier

Presentation to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Nursery Schools and Nursery Classes

History and challenges• “Good quality can be found across all types

of early years settings; however quality was higher overall in settings integrating care and education and in nursery schools.” Sylva et. al. (2004)

Why quality matters• It matters for children

and families now and over the long term

• The benefit of attending a high quality pre-school equate to 41 more points at GCSE, the equivalent to gaining seven B grades at GCSE, rather than seven C grades.

[reference]

Maintained Nursery Schools• The only sector of the school system

which Ofsted finds to have quality as high in economically disadvantaged areas, as in other areas

• The most highly rated sector in terms of Ofsted inspection outcomes (Ofsted Statistics, 31.12.15)

• The most highly rated sector in terms of Ofsted’s ParentView

Aspiration• “Pockets of

excellence are fantastic and act as trailblazers for the system, but their impact will be marginal if we cannot find a way for the rest of the system to learn from their success.”Nicky Morgan: educational excellence everywhere

Reality

A third of maintained nursery schools in England have closed since 1980. Early Education, 2015

Preserve and protect our nursery school silos… or develop?

A self-improving early years system

• The traditional model of the school may not be the most effective organisation and the traditional model of the school leader may not be the right person to take this on.

• Nursery schools are highly innovative and we are well-placed to bring together PVI settings, school-based early years classes, and childminders and to develop a self-improving early years system.

• Many Nursery Schools are already playing a leading role in developing quality across their locality

Successes• Sheringham can demonstrate some

promising practice around improving quality

Ofsted outcomes- settings

Sheringham

Newham

London

England

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

% Inadequate% RI/satisfactory% Good% Outstanding

Ofsted outcomes - childminders

Sheringham

Newham

London

England

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

% Inadequate% RI/satisfactory% Good% Outstanding

System leadershipCarefully putting the pieces together:• clusters of

schools, settings and providers

• a local-solutions approach

• co-construction• system leadersNursery schools are essential: pull one

that block out of the system, and …

Unleashing greatness

“You can mandate adequacy but you cannot mandate greatness; it has to be unleashed.”

Michael Barber and Joel Klein