The government last week released this year’s Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) results, which show another year of improvement across the board.

The data reveals the standards achieved at the end of the EYFS, also known as the “nappy curriculum”, which is mandatory for reception classes, childminders and nurseries. The results illustrate just how far this level of education has come since the curriculum was introduced under the Labour government in 2006.

However, critics still point to the performance gap between the genders, with newspapers last week highlighting boys’ low scores in reading and writing.

But education and childcare minister Elizabeth Truss said the figures show year-on-year improvement. “Parents now have a clearer sense of how their child is progressing. I want to further improve quality so that parents can have confidence in the early education their children are receiving,” she said.