The problem of boys’ underachievement is an issue across the entire developed world and has presented teachers and early years practitioners with challenges as well as opportunities. Only in Scandinavia do boys achieve at roughly the same rate as girls and there they don’t start school formally until they are seven.

The underachievement of boys continues to be high on the government agenda. For many boys in this country and elsewhere, the demands made upon them in the Early Years to read and write, before they are emotionally and physically ready to do so, can give many an early taste of failure from which many of them never fully recover. This book will address the issues that impact on achievement.