The name is absent

mentioned earlier in light of two explanations: the rise of the ‘primary school effect’, or the use of
national assessments as outcome measures at age 7 rather than standardised tests at age 6 and
at school entry. The changes in effects over the school period vary by outcome and are
illustrated below.

Table 9.1: Effect of duration at end of Year 1 and end of Year 2

The impact of duration of pre-school upon reading is maintained in approximately equal
magnitude right through to the end of Key Stage 1. However, the impact of duration of pre-
school upon maths is reduced by about 40-50 per cent at the end of Year 2 as compared with the
end of Year 1. This indicates that primary school maths is starting to reduce the impact of pre-
school. This could be related to the curriculum emphasis on maths evident with the introduction
of the National Numeracy Strategy.

For social/behavioural outcomes in Year 2 there is less evidence of the positive impact of
duration and quality of pre-school. Individual pre-schools differed in the benefits for children’s
development that they provided. Where pre-schools provided greater developmental benefit,
they were regarded as more ‘effective’. Hence the effectiveness (children showing more/less
progress than expected given their initial profile and background characteristics) of a pre-school
is a measure of the total benefit associated with the characteristics of that pre-school. The
effectiveness of the pre-school centre attended in promoting better social/behavioural and
cognitive outcomes continues to show a positive impact for the pre-school sample up to the end
of Year 2.

Children who do not experience pre-school

Data were collected for a group of ‘home’ children with none or only minimal pre-school centre
experience. Comparison of the ‘home’ sample with children who had attended a pre-school
centre showed that both the characteristics and attainments of ‘home’ children vary significantly
from those who had been in pre-school. It is not possible to conclude with certainty that the
much lower attainments of the ‘home’ group are directly due to lack of pre-school experience.¹³
Nonetheless, earlier statistical analyses of attainment and social behaviour at primary school
entry strongly suggest that pre-schooling provided a significant cognitive boost at entry to
reception and had benefits on most areas of social behaviour, particularly Peer sociability.

Analyses of attainments at the end of Year 1 and Year 2 explored the impact of child, parent and
home environment factors. Even when these important influences are controlled, ‘home’
children’s cognitive attainments are poorer than those of children who had attended a pre-school
centre. These findings add weight to earlier conclusions that pre-schooling has a beneficial
impact on young children’s cognitive attainment. ‘Home’ children remain at a disadvantage
during Key Stage 1 and evidence of a significant attainment gap remains in Year 2.

By contrast, the difference between the ‘home’ and pre-school group had reduced and were no
longer significant for the four measures of social behaviour studied. This is in contrast to findings
for the ‘home’ group at entry to primary school and in Year 1. It appears therefore that the
beneficial impact of pre-school on cognitive attainment is more long lasting than that on social
behaviour. Social/behavioural outcomes may be more influenced than cognitive outcomes by
the primary school peer group. Still this finding is at odds with the Perry Pre-school study, which

¹³ A controlled experiment (which would not be feasible on either ethical or practical grounds) would be
needed to draw firm conclusions.

44

<<   <   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >   >>