Vox Pop - Should the EYFS be extended to cover six-year-olds?

YES

Claire Schofield, director of membership, policy and communications, National Day Nurseries Association

There is emerging evidence that starting formal education at a later age can be beneficial to children.

While we would welcome the EYFS being extended to six-year-olds, it is important to recognise that this is a distinct stage for children and EYFS would need to be delivered in the right environment with high adult-to-child ratios.

National Day Nurseries Association welcomes the option for children to stay with an existing provider at four rather than start school in the government's current consultation on the school admission code, and believes it is vital this is widely promoted.

YES

Dr Richard House, co-founder, Open Eye

We have concerns about the early years framework, but as it is the system that we have to work with then extending it to six-year-olds is something to be welcomed.

We think it would be particularly beneficial to those from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are being led into quasi-formal cognitive education that they are not ready for.

Extending early years provision to six gives such pupils time to get the proper grounding and support they need for school.

NO

Chris Keates, general secretary, NASUWT

There is already a seamless transition between the early years curriculum and Key Stage 1. This report appears to be calling for a greater degree of graduation in that transition. Schools are already demonstrating flexibility in doing this. There doesn't need to be a change in the starting age of school to achieve it.

What's required is the removal of restrictions imposed by the inspection regime that undermine the confidence of headteachers and teachers to make such changes.

The Rose review, which has recently been concluded and accepted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, will introduce increased flexibility in primary schools.

YES

Megan Pacey, chief executive, Early Education

International evidence increasingly suggests that if you introduce a child into too formal a curriculum before they are developmentally ready, you are not taking into account where they are in terms of their learning and capacity to develop.

The EYFS in England is being embraced as a positive framework with sound principles that enables practitioners to provide early education with an emphasis on learning through play, observing the child and planning from and for children's interests in partnership with parents and other professionals. There is considerable merit in extending it.