The focus must be on the children’s emotional wellbeing, not on gathering data to measure school performance, say early years specialists and headteachers

As parents of four-year-olds discover which primary school they will join in September, many will be unaware that their children will be formally tested in English and maths in the first weeks of term.

When these new learners begin their school lives this year, like older children, the focus must be on their emotional wellbeing. Settling in, learning the routines of school life and making friends must be the priority. They, too, have had their young lives disrupted by Covid. They have missed out on socialising, play and many of the skills usually learned in nursery settings, where attendance rates were as low as 50% during lockdown.