  urlLink Early years - The debate on when to start formal teaching : "She followed 16 four-year-olds through their first year at school. All the families lived in the same poor urban neighbourhood with no obvious differences in income. Eight children were from Bangladeshi families, the rest were 'Anglo' children, five white and three African/Caribbean/English mixed race. When she asked the three Bangladeshi children who seemed least interested in learning why they went to school, they surprised her by saying that they were there to study. Four months later all three had concluded that they were at school to 'play'. She found they no longer accepted their parents' message that school was about work. They believed that teachers wanted them to play and had not absorbed the unspoken message that the aim was to learn through play. In contrast, the three children who did best were Anglo pupils whose mother were aware of how children learnt through play and provided similar experiences at home. Dr Brooker found the staff were aware that differences between home and school would affect children, but believed that the play-based classroom would help to compensate by giving all children the same chances. " 
