ABSTRACT
Good nursery practice and good practice in the early years1 of statutory schooling are informed by the same principles. Whatever the current legislation in England and Wales, literacy learning and teaching in these years ‘must remain part of a distinctive early years tradition’ (Whitehead, 1996: 72). Making progress in becoming literate needs to be embedded in a number of ways of making meaning-ways that include music, art, role play and scientific investigations and which require talking and listening as much as reading and writing. By the time formal schooling starts, children have lived in the world a little longer and have experienced more outings and visits. They know more people outside the immediate family and friends are becoming increasingly important as they discover the social aspects of being a growing human being. Increasing control over the spoken and written forms of their mother tongue will have made a considerable impact on cognitive development. For example, they will have made headway in classifying phenomena and in reflecting on all that happens to them.
