Shanghaied

Lots on Breakfast telly this week about Chinese Maths teachers coming to teach and train English maths teachers.
Couple of interesting points firstly Chinese Maths teachers just teach maths at primary age whereas english teachers are 'expected to be jacks of all trades' which was said in a very disparaging way.

Secondly and it was said by a Chinese teacher right at the end of the interview and probably missed that Chinese children don't start formal school until age 7.

There's a lot of talk of school readiness in early years usually meaning are they ready for a diet of listening and sitting in one place!  But it is right that children need to be ready to learn.  And I wonder as we head towards assessing and therefore some would argue failing children age 2 if we are going in the wrong direction.  It's the one thing that government ministers don't notice when they visit these places - the children are older!