Skip to main content
 
 
 
 
1
1

Upstart - homepage image depicting curiosityScotland’s children are Scotland’s future. To realise their full potential, they need the very best start to their education. The western countries with the best records in education don’t start formal schooling till children are seven. Instead they have a kindergarten stage based on well-established principles of child development.

Current Scottish policy supports a developmental approach, but the structure of our schooling system makes it difficult to deliver. A statutory kindergarten stage ensures that the ethos of education for the under-sevens is different from that of formal schooling.

In today’s fast-moving, high-pressure world, children need more opportunities to learn through play (especially outdoors), to develop their spoken language and social skills, and to build sound foundations for academic achievement. Please read Why Upstart? and watch our short film to find out more about our aims. To keep up-to-date with the campaign, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or register for the monthly newsletter on the right sidebar form.

Recent Blog Posts

What is Philosophy with Children?

| Blog | No Comments
by Suzanne Axelsson How many different ways can we jump into a puddle? A philosophical play. A way for the children to understand there are many ways to do things,…

Education: how does Scotland get out of this fine mess?

| Blog | No Comments
Sue Palmer ‘When it comes to education’, says this week’s Spectator, ‘Scotland is an example of what not to do'. I didn’t read the article because it was behind a…

Parental perspectives: whose knowledge counts?

| Blog | No Comments
by Diane Delaney Imagine standing at the top of a towering skyscraper near the coast, gazing out of the window. What can you see? The vast expanse of the sea,…

Play and Health in Childhood: a Rights-Based Approach

| Blog | No Comments
by Julia Whitaker and Alison Tonkin When we think about play, we think of ‘fun’, ‘pleasure’, ‘imagination’ - maybe even ‘joy’. In our schools, we talk about ‘making learning fun’,…