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Education provision for children aged three to five pays too little attention to culture and beliefs and imaginative play, according to a report published today by Ofsted.

The watchdog surveyed 144 early years settings and found that, while most children achieved well in most early learning goals, achievement was lower in calculation, early reading and writing, a sense of time and place, an understanding of culture and beliefs and imaginative play because “practitioners gave these too little attention”.

However, standards were higher than expected in aspects of personal, social, emotional and physical development.

Girls achieved better than boys in all areas of learning and children with learning difficulties usually did well while some more able children under achieved.

Ofsted visited settings including primary and special schools, first schools, nursery schools and children’s centres to evaluate standards, achievement and the quality of provision for children aged three to five.