School readiness and the good level of development: Policy constructions in English early childhood education

Abstract This paper critically analyses how school readiness has been historically and discursively constructed in Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy in England over the past four decades. Using Bacchi's ‘What's the Problem Represented to be?’ framework and Foucauldian concepts of governmentality, the paper explores how school readiness has shifted from a globally contested notion into a narrowly defined policy construct bound up with neoliberal economic goals and performativity pressures. Central to this shift is the Good Level of Development (GLD) assessment, undertaken at the end of the Reception year, which positions school readiness as both a vehicle for raising standards and a solution to economic inequality. Through historical‐discursive analysis, the paper highlights how school readiness in England has been constructed through neoliberal logics of data‐driven performativity and accountability mechanisms which have significant implications for teachers and children. The GLD functions as a measure of children's attainment but also as a technology of governance, influencing pedagogical decision‐making and narrowing the curriculum. The paper concludes by exploring alternative constructs of school readiness that reposition transition into school as a relational, bi‐directional process grounded in children's lived experiences and teachers' professional knowledge.