Enhance Primary Results Through Investing in Early Years, Say Teachers: A recent survey by Save the Children has revealed that 79 per cent of primary school teachers in the United Kingdom believe that investing in pre-school and nursery provision would result in a decrease in children starting primary education without adequate language and speech skills.

Enhance Primary Results Through Investing in Early Years, Say Teachers

The survey of 504 primary school teachers in the United Kingdom has revealed that three quarters (75 per cent) of teachers said that children were entering primary school without the ability to confidently construct full sentences.

Of the primary school teachers in the survey, 81 per cent said that children often start school without being able to read sentences or words and a further 65 per cent said that they often meet children who struggle to follow simple instructions.

The market research findings support a campaign which calls for additional Government investment in nurseries so that an early years teacher can be employed in all setting within 5 years.

The campaign, entitled Read On. Get On believes that employing an early years teacher will ensure that all children successfully achieve a good level of language development by the age of 5.

The respondents described how children have poor speech and language skills, with 80 per cent saying they are forced to spend additional one-on-one time with pupils to try and enhance their skills.

Of the respondents, more than 50 per cent said that the problem of poor speech and language negatively impacts pupils’ school results and is causing issues in the classroom such as poor behaviour and attention.

Director of Outcomes and Information at communication charity, I CAN, Mary Hartshorne, has said of the recent findings:

‘We know from our work in early years settings that one of the main challenges of supporting early language development is identifying children who have delayed speech and language development as early as possible – so that support can be put in place to help these children catch up with their peers.’