It is indeed truly mystifying that the “early years glitterati”, as Ted Wragg unaffectionately calls them (“Too early to join the box gang”, TES ,nbsp;January 24), can be so uncritically gung-ho about the Foundation Stagenbsp;(“Foundation stage is solid”, TES Letters, January 17).

The unholynbsp;alliance which these “experts” have forged with Government early yearsnbsp;policy surely has a lot to do with the disreputable political historynbsp;behind the Foundation Stage policy document - i.e. that it was cobblednbsp;together by early years authorities as a desperate “least worst” option in the face of the even more appalling 1998 “Desirable Learning Outcomes“nbsp;policy.

That was an extraordinary document which ignored the central place of playnbsp;in early learning, and which had Chris Woodhead’s fingerprints all overnbsp;it.

Yet the central ideological thrust of this earlier document remainsnbsp;essentially unchanged and unchallenged - normalising, as it does, the relentless intrusion of adult-centric agendas into the psyches and into thenbsp;very being of children at the tenderest of ages.

Richard House
Denbigh Road
Norwich
Norfolk