EPPE study affirms pre-school benefits to end of KS2
Catherine Gaunt
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The benefits of high-quality early years settings for poorer children and for children of parents with low qualifications continue until the end of primary school, according to the final report from the largest study into the impact of pre-school and primary education.
It also found that all children who attend a high-quality pre-schoolfollowed by a primary school with high-quality teaching have asignificant boost in their development.
The final report of the Effective Pre-School and Primary Education(EPPE) project, published last week, looks at the end of primary school,when children are ten and 11 years old in Years 5 and 6.
Professor Pam Sammons, one of the project's researchers, said, 'The EPPEresearch confirms the importance of early experiences and the powerfulcombination of home, pre-school and primary school in improvinglearning.'
The report said that a mother's education level and early home learningenvironment were still the strongest predictors of better academic andsocial and behavioural development at the age of ten and 11, in linewith previous findings.
It said, 'The benefits of pre-school education identified in earlierreports have largely persisted through to the end of Key Stage 2. Havingattended pre-school (versus none) had significant benefits for English,mathematics and pro-social behaviour.'
However, if children had attended poor-quality early years settings theygenerally showed no benefit in terms of improved outcomes.
Having a stimulating home-learning environment in children's earlyyears, combined with family attitudes that value education, support fromfamily and high parental expectations helped disadvantaged children'succeed against the odds', the report said.
FURTHER INFORMATION
'EPPE 3-11, Final report from the primary phase: pre-school, school andfamily influences on children's development during Key Stage 2' is atwww.dcsf.gov.uk/research.
