ATL COMMENT ON DCSF REVIEW OF THE LIVES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

19 November 2007

Martin Johnson, acting deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:

“This is a useful, and mostly honest and balanced, overview of childhood.  The report clearly shows the Government needs to review early years education - especially the age for starting formal education.  It also needs to remedy the scandalous failure in the comprehensive spending review to allocate the nearly £4 billion extra needed to reach the Government's target to halve child poverty by 2010.  And the Government must also take another look at whether the planned curriculum meets the needs of the least successful learners.”