Dear <<First Name>>

Early Years Scotland has produced a short film about their event in September when Dr Elizabeth Henderson put the case for Upstart. They've also released a report, with many sensible recommendations about improving transition from nursery to school.  However, these recommendations have been made repeatedly through the years, with little effect. This is why Upstart believes it's  time for radical action: we need a dedicated kindergarten stage 3-7!  

3/11/16 Kate Johnston led a workshop on Upstart at the Children in Scotland annual conference in Cumbernauld. 

12/11/16 Sue Palmer spoke about Upstart at the Growing Up Wild conference in Hamilton. The conference was covered on BBC News and organiser Susan McNeish also wrote us a post about the event.   



17/11/16  Upstart hosted a stimulating ScotEdChat conversation on Twitter.   

24/11/16 Sue Palmer presented the Upstart case at a Holyrood Conference on 'Tackling Child Poverty' in Edinburgh. 

25/11/16 Sue and Kate found the second Common Weal Policy Lab meeting on 'education' disappointing. Discussion centred on secondary students' views about school/discipline and a Scottish government research review of educational initiatives to close the attainment gap, all of which are regularly discussed but fail to address the underlying problems caused by a too-early focus on academic outcomes. We hope to present the Upstart case at the third Policy Lab on 11th January.   

30//11/16  Hilary Long gave a presentation about Upstart at the South Ayrshire branch of Common Weal, in Ayr. 

30/11/16 Questions to John Swinney at a Ministerial Engagement Session in Edinburgh included references to lack of knowledge about child development among the teaching profession; the difficulties parents encounter with deferment; the current crisis in child and adolescent mental health. Upstart was mentioned several times in the ensuing discussion.    

30/11/16 An article about Upstart appeared in Product Magazine.  

We've now completed our responses to consultations on educational governance and expansion of early childcare. Both will be displayed in the News section of the website until the consultations close early in the New Year. If you have any comments/additions please contact us via info@upstart.scot before 31st December. We also hope many Upstart supporters will send in their own responses.

- We're very pleased to see an Edinburgh woodland nursery among the government trials for Making free childcare more flexible.   
 

- Research from Heriot Watt concludes that improving childcare would be the single most effective action to close the poverty gap. However, as Scottish government adviser Naomi Eisenstadt points out, it must be high-quality childcare. Until this is assured, expansion of ELC would not provide long-term improvement.  

                                  From 'The Death of Infancy' G. Blenkin and A.V. Kelly
                           in Education 3-13(1994)

Despite the Early Level, it seems that having a 3-18 Curriculum for Excellence has done much the same for Scotland. We need radical action to reinstate the concept of 'Early Years' (officially 3 – 8) as a separate and vitally important stage in children's development.  

Have a great Christmas break, when it comes. Here's to a more enlightened attitude to early childhood in 2017!   
 

The Upstart team