I shall be out of the country thank goodness, visiting my brother's family in Canada.

I think it's more likely to be a drop-off in freedoms as children go through the school system, so that they are empowered and have agency throughout.

It's not just inspections but the restrictive influence it has had on schools and settings, on curricula, and the highly directed ways in which it should be taught.

Teachers are professionals with degrees, yet they have little freedom to teach in ways that are TRULY in children's best interests!

Couldn't agree more! I think most parents want their children to go to their nearest school, and that their wish is that their child will be happy at school. That's it, in a nutshell!

Earlier in my career schools had inspections from HMIs (not sure if they still exist). I recall them as friendly and supportive, and certainly nothing resembling the nightmare Juggernaut that OfSTED has become!

Does OfSTED really do any good? They have done irreparable damage - for what end?!

I could weep.

School-based nurseries are NOT the way to go! They are at risk of top-down approaches led by headteachers and subject leaders who want inappropriate practices and unrealistic demands on young children. Please, let them be children and not mini primary children!

I'm totally with you there, Pam!

Young children need understanding, kindness, open-ended time to play and to make sense of the world, which is why all our research focuses on Children's Mathematical Graphics.

See: www.childrens-mathematics.net

Agreed! And the mathematical equivalent (of 'written' maths) is Children's Mathematical Graphics. See:

www.childrens-mathematics.net
turbologo.com/designs/8095...

The government wants neat and legible handwriting and spelling from Reception - writing that looks as though an older primary child has written.
This is inappropriate for young children! They are in the Foundation phase, and should be free to choose how to communicate through emergent writing,

According to the 'Writing Framework', 'emergent writing' means:

Children experimenting with mark-making or playing at writing before they formally start writing.

But it's a logical and highly valuable way of young children meaning-making with marks, signs and symbols.

Is there anyone in the current American government or legal system who is decent, and who is not corrupt?!!

And this from the President of America!!