5. Adult skills to support children. Qualified staff in the most effective settings provided children
with more curriculum-related activities (especially language and mathematics) and they
encouraged children to engage in challenging play. The most highly qualified staff also provided
the most instruction, and were the most effective in their interactions with the children, using the
most sustained shared thinking. Less qualified staff were significantly better at supporting
learning when they worked with qualified teachers.
RECOMMENDATION: Aim at a good proportion of trained teachers on the staff.
6.There were more intellectual gains for children in centres that encouraged high levels of parent
engagement in their children’s learning. The most effective settings shared child-related
information between parents and staff, and parents were often involved in decision making about
their child’s learning programme. More particularly, children did better where the centre shared
its educational aims with parents. This enabled parents to support children at home with activities
or materials that complemented those experiences in the Foundation Stage.
RECOMMENDATION: Engage parents in their children’s learning and share educational aims
with them.
7. The most effective settings adopted discipline/behaviour policies in which staff supported
children in rationalising and talking through their conflicts. In settings that were less effective in
this respect, our observations showed that there was often no follow up on children's
misbehaviour and, on many occasions, children were ‘distracted’ or simply told to stop.
RECOMMENDATION: Encourage behaviour policies in which staff support children’s behaviour
management through reasoning and talk.
The EPPE findings in the context of other research studies
The EPPE findings are similar to other research studies and this increases confidence in its
conclusions.
Related studies have shown:
• Short-term, positive effects of pre-school education have been shown conclusively in the
U.S., Sweden, Norway, Germany, Canada, Northern Ireland and New Zealand (See
Melhuish, 2004a).
• The effects of greater staff training and qualifications have been shown in the U.S.
(Peisner-Feinberg and Burchinal1997) and in Northern Ireland (Melhuish et al. 2000).
• The contribution of quality to children’s developmental progress has been shown in many
studies, often using the ECERS observational scale (Melhuish 2004a and b).
• The US National Institute of Child Health and Development Study (NICHD) found that
family characteristics have a greater impact on outcomes for children than pre-school
factors. However, the effect of attending pre-school (versus not) on developmental
progress is greater than the effect of social disadvantage. In addition, for children
attending pre-school, the effect of attending a specific centre is about half that of all social
background factors (NICHD, 2002).
• Early day care was found in EPPE to relate to increased cognitive outcomes better
Independence and Peer Sociability at 5 years but also to increased anti-social behaviour.
These findings are similar to those in the US and Northern Ireland (NICHD, 2002;
Melhuish et al. 2001, 2002).
• The findings on disadvantage are mirrored elsewhere (see Melhuish, 2004a) and are the
basis of policy initiatives all over the world (Young, 1996).
• EPPE is one of few studies (the only in the UK) to demonstrate the role of pre-school
education as an effective means of early intervention in SEN (Sammons et al. 2002).
• EPPE is the first large-scale multi-level modelling study to show convincingly that
individual pre-school centres have lasting effects on children’s development.
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