England’s littlest learners need help to catch up

HAPPY TODDLERS munch macaroni at Puddleducks nursery in north London. Upstairs, children study at miniature desks. The airy pre-school, with its mud-pie kitchen and subdued “sensory room”, is running much as it did in early 2020, before England’s first lockdown forced it to shut for two and a half months. But Balal Arshad, the manager, says some of the children are not speaking as fluently as expected for their age. Some are finding it harder to get along with others. The number of children his staff think would benefit from extra attention has doubled since covid-19 reached Britain two years ago.

A report published in early April by Ofsted, the schools inspector, revealed similar concerns in many nurseries and pre-schools. Staff told inspectors that babies are failing to respond to “basic facial expressions” and were a bit less mobile than usual. Children seem to need more help with sharing and turn-taking, and their behaviour is worse in general. That affects how much they learn.