The name is absent

The impact of a child’s background 29

Home learning environment 29

Variations in centre effectiveness 30

The impact of pre-school - quantity and quality 31

Ratios and staff qualifications 31

Children who did not experience pre-school 32

Section 7 34

Case studies of practice

Findings 35

Management and staff 35

Ethos and climate of the settings 35

Analyses of the quantitative findings with the qualitative case
studies data 36

Adult-child interactions 36

Differentiation and formative assessment 37

Discipline and adult support in talking through conflicts 37

Parental partnership 37

Pedagogy 38

Knowledge of the curriculum and child development 38

Section 8 39

The effects of pre-school on children’s attainment and progress up to the end
of Year One

The impact of a child’s background 40

Home learning environment 40

The continued impact of pre-school - Duration, quality and effectiveness 40

Children with no pre-school experience 40

Section 9 42

Did pre-school experience lead to lasting gains in cognitive and
social/behavioural development to the end of KS 1?

The impact of a child’s background 42

Home learning environment 43

The continued impact of pre-school - Duration, quality and effectiveness 43

Children who do not experience pre-school 44

Section 10 46

Children ‘at risk’ of Special Educational Needs

Aims 46

The sample 47

Methodology 47

Concepts of Special Educational Need (SEN) and ‘risk’ for SEN 47

Distribution of ‘at risk’ children across different types of pre-school
providers 48

SEN status at school 48

Characteristics of children identified in different ‘at risk’ categories 49

The impact of pre-school on ‘at risk’ status 51

Movement ‘in’ and ‘out’ of ‘risk’ by pre-school type 51

Pre-school centre quality, progress and development 52

Parents’ perceptions and experiences of SEN 52

Summary and policy implications 53