The origins of NAPE

The association was founded on the 8th March 1980.  Several hundred teachers, parents and governors gathered in London to launch an association to speak on behalf of children and their primary schools.  This was the outcome of a growing conviction that the crucial importance of primary education in Britain was not sufficiently recognized and resourced.  NAPE, as we are familiarly known, is committed to the view that the achievement of high standards in education is utterly dependent upon the quality and strength of children’s learning in their earliest years, both in schools and in homes.  Our concern for children extends from birth to eleven years old and then beyond to include the first two years of secondary education.  The evidence is clear.  Unless vital skills and the attitudes and expectations that go with them are soundly established by the age of eleven, it is too late for many children to succeed.  For some children, particularly those who are born into families facing social disadvantage, it is already too late by seven.

From the beginning, our membership has been open to everyone who is involved in primary education and who shares our determination to secure a better deal for children.  Teachers, heads, advisers, inspectors, parents councilors and even some MPs have made up our ranks.  The membership of whole primary school communities is a cornerstone of the association.  In over 29 years of campaigning, we have often forged partnerships with other teacher and parent organisations which are in sympathy with our work.  There have been undoubted successes not least in changing national attitudes that, in the past, too often assumed that young children are merely preparing for their future education rather than engaging in learning so fundamental that it will shape them as men and women.

We continue to advance our work to improve the quality of primary education and are proud to be recognized as a pre-eminent source of advice concerning the education of children from 3 to 13 not only in the UK but overseas.