Teachers see it every September. Some new-starters arrive confident and curious, ready to play, make friends, explore and trust the adults around them. Others struggle with a range of challenges that make it harder for them to feel they belong in school and to seize the opportunities on offer. Those differences don’t just reflect what happens in nurseries or preschool classrooms. Children’s development is shaped from pregnancy onwards by their health, relationships and experiences, and by whether their parents and families have access to reliable support and information, a secure income and a decent home. Yet reception teachers can be expected to close gaps that opened long before children reach the classroom door. By age 5, children from low-income families are already, on average, almost five months behind their peers in their development. While precise measures are contested and imperfect, teachers don’t need statistics to tell them how the conditions of a child’s earliest years affect their ability to engage in learning, trust the adults around them and make friends. They see it every day. Promisingly, politicians now too seem to be getting more exercised about the issue. I was in the Commons last month as MPs debated the infants, parents and carers private member’s bill. Damaging inequalities It was encouraging to hear such strong agreement about the importance of the first 1,001 days, the damaging inequalities between children and the need to give vital services a more enduring foundation. Parliamentarians recognised that giving children a strong start in life needs to be a broad, cross-government agenda. They also talked passionately about the need for sustained early action. The demise of Sure Start was widely talked about, lamenting the dismantling of important early childhood services. The new government is also focusing on improving opportunity and reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training. Andy Burnham’s ambition that no young person should be denied opportunity because of their background is one we should all support. But an opportunity agenda cannot only focus on children’s final years in school. It must begin before they even arrive. Good physical and mental health, communication, confidence, strong relationships and a sense of belonging all begin in early childhood. All influence how children engage with education and, ultimately, make the transition into adulthood and work. If the government wants to improve young people’s long-term outcomes, its opportunity agenda must start at the beginning of childhood. Focus must stay The opportunity mission, launched after the 2024 election reflected this. The mission has disappeared, but the government’s focus on early childhood should not. That is why we have launched Start Strong – a new movement aiming to ensure every child has a fair start in life. We want to keep early childhood on the agenda, even when ministers and governments change. And we want to drive the bold, broad action required to improve babies’ and young children’s lives. Action that must go broader than any single service or government department. Teachers, school leaders and other school staff can be part of the movement, and we hope you will. Schools have a distinctive contribution to make. You can describe what national data cannot – how the pressures faced by families and the gaps in local services show up in children’s confidence, communication and relationships. You can also identify the support and partnerships that make the greatest difference. Sure Start The earliest Sure Start programmes brought education together with health and family support, often employing teachers or drawing directly on their expertise. This showed up, years later, in improved GCSE outcomes for the most disadvantaged. This is just one example of how teachers’ expertise can help improve early childhood outcomes. More schools now provide nursery education and work directly with children under 5. But much of early childhood still happens before and outside school. You will have clear views on both early education and the wider support families in early childhood to support their children’s development. We’d like to hear those views. We have launched a national listening exercise to hear from a wide range of families, communities and professionals about what governments should do to give every child a fair start in life. Your insights will be valuable, and we hope you and your school will take part. At a time when so many issues are competing for the government’s attention, we need to come together and make sure early childhood stays high on the agenda. We hope school leaders and teachers will add their voices to this movement, and help ensure every baby and young child has a fair start in life.