Concerns raised over five-year-olds in Darlington failing to reach expected standards
The Office for National Statistics has published data from the Department for Education for the standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to aged five - the Early Years Foundation Stage.
The data shows that key development standards of children in Darlington in the academic year 2023/24 are lower than the national average.
Centre of Darlington (Image: Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT)
In Darlington, only 73.8 per cent of children are reaching the expected standard in Maths by the end of their 'early' years. The national average of children reaching the expected standard is 78 per cent.
Early Education Minister, Stephen Morgan, said: 'It's simply not good enough that almost a third of children aren't school-ready at age five. Teachers being taken off teaching to manage issues with school-readiness holds back every child's learning and life chances.
'This government has inherited an early years system that fails to drive the highest outcomes and tackle inequality, but we have a clear mission to break down barriers to opportunity and ensure tens of thousands of children are school-ready through our Plan for Change.
'We have already started that work: extending early language support, kicking off the first phase of school-based nurseries, and improving training and guidance for early educators to better support and assess children with special educational needs.'
The lowest level of children reaching the attainment rate is for a skill is within literacy. Only 68.5 per cent of children are achieving the expected level at this stage. This is a low point nationally, too, the average is 70.7
Some 23.8 per cent of children finishing the early years foundation stage are not at the expected levels of language and communication in Darlington.
The numbers of children reaching the expected levels at the end of this stage have also fallen for maths and communication and language skills, since academic year 2021 to 2022.
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A Darlington Borough Council spokesperson, said: "Ofsted judges that more than 96 per cent of schools in Darlington provide good or outstanding early years provision.
"The Early Years Foundation Stage profile is an assessment of children's development at the end of the academic year in which children turn five, usually reception year.
"This measure, which changed following the pandemic and is relatively new, gives some insight into areas of strength and areas of development for children at this important stage in their education.
"The council is working in partnership with schools, the majority of which are academies, to explore the data and promote high standards for all our children.
"The council has identified 'school readiness' as a priority in the new Council Plan, so that we can bring stakeholders, including education colleagues, together to consider what more can be done to support our children in the early years.'
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