This section describes the characteristics of the 141 centres attended by 3 and 4 year-old
children in the EPPE sample. Averaged scores across the 141 centres in the sample
approached ‘good’ on the ECERS-R but the curricular profile developed for England (ECERS-E)
showed that the learning opportunities in maths and science were often limited and even
inadequate. However, overall scores on the ECERS suggest that the quality of much provision in
England is similar to that in other industrialised countries.
Centres within the educational maintained/state sector (nursery schools, nursery classes and
integrated centres) generally had higher scores than those in the voluntary or private sectors.
State sector educational provision was in the ‘good’-to-‘excellent’ range followed by local
authority social services day-care. Private day nurseries were consistently found to have scores
in the ‘minimal/adequate’ range while playgroups had lower scores. These differences in quality
are similar to those found by the UK’s Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED) reports on
variation in the quality of pre-school provision (OfSTED, 1999) and to a recent study using
ECERS on 44 pre-school centres in London by Lera, Owen and Moss (1996).
This large sample of pre-school centres from different regions in England shows great variation
in the curriculum and care on offer, the pedagogical strategies seen in interactions between
children and staff, and in the resources available for children’s play and learning. Comparisons
between types suggest that an adult child ratio of 1:8 as found in the private and voluntary sector
do not guarantee high standards by themselves and that ratios of 1:13 in the LEA sector are not
associated with low quality. However, the issue of ratio is inevitably confounded with type of pre-
school and other variation associated with type, e.g. qualifications of staff.
Although centres offering full day-care generally had lower ratings than those on a sessional
basis, the LEA nursery schools which had changed from ‘education only’ to ‘integrated’ centres
(offering full day care and parental support) usually scored highest of all. Furthermore, adding
‘education’ to more traditional local authority day care settings through the addition of just one
teacher or a peripatetic teacher was not associated with higher quality. EPPE found that settings
integrating care and education had high scores only when there was a good balance between
‘care’ and ‘education’ in terms of staff qualifications. This implies that the successful integration
of care and education is related to the proportion of staff with ‘educational’ qualifications.
Details of the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales
One of the most widely used observational measures for describing the characteristics of early
childhood education and care is the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R;
Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 1998). The revised ECERS-R has 43 items that are divided into 7 sub-
scales. These sub-scales are space and furnishing, personal care routines, language and
reasoning, activities, social interactions, organisation and routines, and adults working together.
Each item is rated on a 7-point scale (1 = inadequate, 3 = minimal/adequate, 5 = good, 7 =
excellent). Completion of the ECERS usually involves approximately one day of observation, as
well as talking to the staff about aspects of the routine that were not visible during observation
(for example, weekly swimming or seasonal outings). The word ‘environment’ in the rating scale
is taken in its broadest sense to include social interactions, pedagogical strategies and
relationships between children as well as adults and children. Matters of pedagogy are very
much to the fore in ECERS-R. For example the sub-scale Organisation and Routine has an item
‘Schedule’ that gives high ratings to a balance between adult-initiated and child-initiated
activities. In order to score a 5 the centre must have ‘a balance between structure and flexibility’
but a 7 requires ‘variations to be made in the schedule to meet individual needs, for example a
child working intensively on a project should be allowed to continue past the scheduled time’.
Further attention to pedagogy can be found in the item Free Play where to earn a 5 centres must
have ‘free play occurring for a substantial portion of the day/session both indoors and outdoors’.
Although entitled ‘Environmental Rating Scale’ the ECERS-R describes processes of the
educational and care environment even more than the physical space and materials on offer.
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