Social/behavioural development 29
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