· Tests and targets make parents seek alternatives
· Pupils in England ‘most tested in the world’

Parents are increasingly seeking alternative forms of education such as home schooling or Steiner schools to free their children from the state sector’s regime of testing and targets, academics suggest today. Most English pupils now start formal learning at four years old, among the youngest in the world, and go on to be the most tested throughout their education, according to a series of in-depth reports which will feed into a major review of primary schooling by Cambridge University.

Many parents are now considering alternative forms of education and more are opting to home-educate their children. The government should learn from the way children are taught in alternative settings such as Steiner schools where they learn through play, the academics say.

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