ABSTRACT
In 1992 a government-commissioned report, Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Schools,14 made clear its concern that the funding formula for schools, whereby primary schools received less per capitum money than secondary schools, could not be justified. Indeed evidence from the USA's Head Start project15 suggests that extra resourcing for primary schools has longer-term beneficial effects than extra resourcing for secondary schools. The importance of nursery and early-years education was given added recognition by the National Commission on Education16 and the belated governmental response in 1995 of vouchers to pay for approximately half of a child's nursery education.17
