The name is absent

information on aspects of the HLE in Key Stage 1. The corrected response rate obtained was
eighty-one per cent.²

Structure of Report and Analyses

This report is divided into four sections.

The first section investigates to what extent different child, family and HLE characteristics
account for variation in children’s Reading and Mathematics attainments in Year 5 of primary
school education. The net influence of different background factors on children’s attainments is
explored using statistical techniques. Further analyses are used to identify the unique (net)
contribution of particular characteristics to variation in children’s cognitive outcomes, while other
influences are controlled.

The second section describes the extent of change in the impact of different background factors
while young children move through primary school. Contextualised multilevel models were used
to estimate the net impact of different background factors on cognitive attainments in both Year 1
and Year 5. Effect sizes (ES) for the different factors were calculated and a comparison between
the two years was made in terms of the relative strength of influence measured by changes in
the ES over the four years. This section therefore answers the question of whether the cognitive
attainment gaps found for different groups of children have remained the same between Year 1
and Year 5 or whether the gaps between certain groups have closed or increased.

In the third section the effects of pre-school and primary school experience on cognitive
outcomes at the end of Year 5 are investigated. The first phase of the EPPE 3-11 research had
shown that pre-school experience gave children a better start to school, in terms of higher
cognitive attainments and improved social/behavioural outcomes. In these analyses measures
of pre-school centre influence including the observed quality of pre-school provision (measured
by the ECERS-E scale, see Sylva et al., 2003) and centre effectiveness (measured by value
added residual estimates based on cognitive progress during the pre-school period) are tested to
explore any continuing effect of pre-school at the end of Year 5. This section also addresses the
question of whether pre-school effects vary for different groups of children.

Further analyses sought to establish the impact of primary school academic effectiveness
(measured by value added) on cognitive outcomes in Year 5. In addition, analyses explored
whether certain groups of children benefit more from the academic effectiveness of the primary
school attended than other children. Analyses also explore the combined influence of different
characteristics of pre-school experience (quality and effectiveness) and primary school academic
effectiveness.

Section 4 presents results of analyses that were conducted to explore children’s academic
progress from the end of Year 1 at primary school to the end of Year 5. Value added analyses of
children’s cognitive progress across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 have been conducted; these
analyses control for prior attainment (Year 1) in analysing progress over time.

The final section summarises the results drawing together the main findings and conclusions.

An appendix is provided reporting some further background information concerning the
characteristics of the EPPE 3-11 sample and investigates whether particular groups of pupils
show differences in their cognitive attainments at the end of Year 5 of primary school education.

² Between the initial assessment at entry to pre-school and the Reception assessment 139 children
dropped out of the study. The response rate is based on the corrected sample of 3032 children.

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