500 nurseries and Reception classes wanted for new research
Katy Morton
Monday, October 28, 2019
Nurseries and Reception classes are needed to take part in three new trials to test different ways to improve lower-income children's learning by focusing on teacher development.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is looking for 500 nurseries and primary schools across England to take part in the trials to provide evidence of what works.
- Early years math programme boosts children's development
- New DfE programme to support disadvantaged children's language development
The trials are part funded by the Department for Education’s £5m investment into professional development and leadership in the early years.
The EEF needs 140 nurseries to take part in a trial of the National Day Nurseries Association’s (NDNA) Maths Champions programme, which is designed to develop maths teaching in early years settings by supporting a practitioner, the ‘Maths Champion’, to design and implement an action plan for improving maths teaching. The NDNA will support the Maths Champion with CPD, online resources and one-to-one advice.
An earlier and smaller EEF-funded evaluation of Maths Champions found that children who took part made the equivalent of two additional months’ progress in maths, on average, compared to a similar group of children who did not take part.
The evaluation, which will be led by a team of researchers from Durham University and the University of York, will aim to find out if the same results can be achieved across a large number of nurseries.
A total of 152 primary schools with nursery classes are needed to take part in a trial of Achieving Early, a two-year coaching programme for early years leaders delivered by Achievement for All (AfA). Under the programme, specialist coaches will conduct monthly visits to train practitioners. During the first visit, the trained coach will meet early years leaders and design a bespoke action plan that will aim to improve the outcomes of nursery and Reception children. AfA will then support them to deliver the plan through regular coaching sessions.
Reception teachers are needed for the third trial of Reception Jigsaw, a professional development programme from White Rose Maths. The year-long programme brings together five areas of pedagogy that are important for teaching maths in the early years including – developing early number sense, reasoning and problem-solving and mathematical talk and questioning.
The above two trials will be evaluated separately by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
- To take part in the research click here
