Reception teachers play chief role in a child's attitude towards school

August 06 2010

More attention needs to be paid to the value of reception teachers and their impact on how a child views school, it has been suggested.

Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the NAHT heads union, has told the Times Education Supplement that too much focus is placed on what secondary schools need to do to get their pupils more interested in studying.

However, he feels that a greater impact needs to be made at a younger age.

Mr Hobby told the news provider: "If you get early years right, then it helps primary and if you get primary right, then it helps secondary.

"The problem with our system is that secondary and higher education dominate the debate. We should reverse the order of attention."

His comments come after Harvard researchers claimed that a top-quality reception teacher could boost the collective lifetime earnings of a class of youngsters by ?200,000.

Figures from the Department for Education have suggested that applications for primary school places could rise by eight per cent between 2010 and 2014.

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