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Using research to inform policy and practice

This study has demonstrated the positive effects of high quality pre-school provision on children’s
intellectual and social behavioural development up to the end of Key Stage 1 in primary school.
The EPPE research indicates that pre-school can play an important part in combating social
exclusion and promoting inclusion by offering disadvantaged children, in particular, a better start
to primary school. The findings indicate pre-school has a positive impact on children’s progress
over and above important family influences. The quality of the pre-school setting experience as
well as the quantity (more months but not necessarily more hours/day) are both influential.

The results show that individual pre-school centres vary in their effectiveness in promoting
intellectual progress over the pre-school period, and indicate that better outcomes are associated
with certain forms of provision. Likewise, the research points to the separate and significant
influence of the home learning environment. These aspects (quality and quantity of pre-school
and home learning environment) can be seen as more susceptible to change through policy and
practitioner initiatives than other child or family characteristics, such as SES.

The EPPE project has become well known for its contribution to ‘evidence based policy’ in early
years education and care. Its findings are robust because they are based on sound and
innovative research methods. The implications for policy of the EPPE project have been spelled
out clearly and are being discussed - and acted upon - at national and local level. EPPE set out
to contribute to the debate about the education and care of young children; the EPPE mixed-
method research design targeted issues that could ‘make a difference’ to the lives of young
children and their families. The research is now extended in the continuation study, EPPE 3-11
also funded by the DfES, to find out if the effects of early education that were so evident at ages
5 and 7 continue through to the age 11. Moreover, the team are investigating the way in which
educational experiences in Key Stage 2 interact with the earlier pre-school experiences in the
shaping of cognitive and social/behavioural outcomes for children at the transition to secondary
school.

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