20/11/2025
This week the Department for Education shared a post about breakfast clubs, 30-hour entitlements, and school-based nurseries.
It was meant to highlight support for schools and early years—but instead, it felt like a slap in the face to every setting fighting to stay afloat, and to schools already at breaking point.
It was humiliating. Depressing. So far removed from reality that it left many of us reeling.
We’re not just disappointed—we’re deeply worried. These are the people shaping the future of our children’s education, and the disconnect is staggering.
We won’t share the original post. It’s had too much of an impact already. But we will share the NDNA’s response—a far more accurate reflection of the truth. One that acknowledges the strain, the underfunding, and the relentless effort of settings like ours.
Early years settings are being pushed to the edge and yet we are so incredibly important.
We’re still here. Still showing up. Still making each day work—somehow. Spending each day investigating how we can save pence here and there to keep the doors open for our families.
But with posts like the one from the DFE it makes you question everything.
We need families, parents, and communities to hear this:
This is the narrative shaping your child’s education. And it’s time to challenge it.
