November 1, 2016 10.56 am
This story is over 67 months old
More than half of Lincolnshire nursery children without qualified teachers
A national charity is calling for more investment in nursery teacher training after a report found more than half of children in Lincolnshire attend a nursery without a qualified early years teacher. The Save the Children charity has highlighted the worst affected areas for what they’re calling an “acute shortage of nursery teachers”, of which Lincolnshire…
A national charity is calling for more investment in nursery teacher training after a report found more than half of children in Lincolnshire attend a nursery without a qualified early years teacher.
The Save the Children charity has highlighted the worst affected areas for what they’re calling an “acute shortage of nursery teachers”, of which Lincolnshire is listed as eighth in the East Midlands.
It’s calling on the government to invest in the sector, warning that more than 1,600 private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries in the region don’t have a qualified nursery teacher, and claiming more than 26,000 children are at greater risk of falling behind by the time they reach school.
While all nurseries have staff who are trained to care for children, not all have trained early years teachers.
In Lincolnshire, 52% of children are without an early years teacher at their independent nursery.
The percentage of children without qualified Early Years teacher in their nurseries acrosss the Local Authorities in England.
Research commissioned by the charity found that children in independent nurseries without an early years teacher are almost 10% less likely to meet the expected levels of development when they start school compared to children who do have a teacher.
The charity says they’re often left struggling with basic skills like speaking full sentences, using tenses, and following simple instructions.
The number of people applying for the teaching roles across England has dropped dramatically to 860 last year from more than 2,300 the year before.
A shrinking number of available positions, poor salaries, and a lack of promotion opportunities is driving this chronic shortage as nurseries around the country, Save the Children said.
Rutland is the worst affected area in the East Midlands, with less than 30% of children in independent settings getting access to a qualified nursery teacher.
Dr Elizabeth Kilbey, a Clinical Psychologist and expert from Channel Four’s “Secret Life of Four Year Olds” programme said: “Having an early years teacher in a nursery can make all the difference to a child’s future.
“We know that during the early years a child’s brain is developing at its quickest rate – and that language and communication skills are the building blocks for everything else they will learn, including subjects like maths and sciences.
“But crucially, it also gives children the tools they need to build their self-esteem and confidence, and develop positive relationships with everyone around them. Sadly, so many nurseries are struggling to afford to hire qualified teachers, and until they can, children will continue to slip through the net.”
Gareth Jenkins, Director of UK Poverty at Save the Children added: ““Nurseries do an incredible job nurturing our children, but many are struggling to afford and recruit the qualified teachers they need to give children this support and support their workforce with more training and development.
“If the government is serious about creating a country that works for everyone, it’s crucial we urgently invest in a qualified teacher for every nursery across the country – giving children the support they need to reach their full potential.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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