Ministers are producing misleading “propaganda” which skirts around new targets for the under-5s in an attempt to head off a revolt by parents of nursery children, campaigners claim today.

Under the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework which comes into force next week, all preschool children in private, voluntary or state childcare in England will be expected to meet 69 literacy, numeracy and problem-solving targets based on, and even using, computers and other technology.

But a booklet for parents on the framework contains no mention of any of the statutory literacy or numeracy targets, emphasising only that children will be expected to “learn through play” and “develop at their own pace”.

Two of the most contentious targets are that children should “write their own names . . . and begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation” and “use phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words”.

The booklet states: “It’s not about introducing a curriculum for young children. Or making them read or write before they’re ready. Quite the reverse.”

This is despite the guidance for nurseries and childcarers referring to the targets as “learning and development requirements that all early years providers must by law deliver”.

The guidance also refers to “the early learning goals which young children should have acquired by the end of the academic year in which they reach five” and “the matters, skills and processes which are required to be taught to young children”.

Kim Simpson of the Open Eye campaign which has been set up with the backing of child-development experts, parents and leading children’s authors to campaign for improvement to the EYFS, claims that the booklet is misleading.

“It makes a point of mentioning the welfare requirements but the statutory learning requirements, which have caused so much disagreement and dissent, are noticeable by their absence,” she told The Times.

Ms Simpson, who has run a Montessori centre for preschool children in Richmond, West London, for more than 30 years, added that the booklet would confuse parents.

In July the Government bowed to pressure from critics and said that nurseries would be able to opt out of the two most contentious literacy targets if parents agreed to it.

Ms Simpson said that anyone reading the booklet would not see anything in it that would justify a nursery seeking an exemption.

“There is plenty in the statutory framework that both parents and practitioners have taken strong and principled issue with because of its developmental inappropriateness,” she said.

“But, in stark contrast, there is pretty much nothing that any parent or practitioner would take issue with in this parents’ booklet. “[The booklet] seems to amount to little more than a propaganda exercise specially launched by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and designed to head off any ‘parents’ revolt’ about the EYFS,” she said.

Leading authors and child development experts have criticised some of the statutory targets in the EYFS, claiming that they are unrealistic and risk harming preschool children by setting back their development.

They also accuse Beverley Hughes, the Children’s Minister, of ignoring her advisers and shelving research commissioned by her department that found that tutoring children to read using basic phonics and simple sentences does not improve their success once they start school.

Aims from birth

0-11 months
Seek to be looked at and approved of; communicate in a variety of ways including crying, gurgling, babbling and squealing

16-26 months
Look for responses which confirm, contribute to, or challenge their understanding of themselves; pretend that one object represents another

22-36 months
Show a strong sense of self; move spontaneously within a space

30-50 months
Show interest in shape; enjoy rhyming and rhythm

40-60 months
Operate independently within the environment and show confidence in linking-up with others for support and guidance; jump off an object and land appropriately

Source: Dfes

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