Children whose family was categorised as belonging to the highest SES group (professional non
manual), had a lead over children of lower SES families in cognitive outcomes at earlier time
points. For attainment in Reading, the gap between Year 1 and Year 5 of primary school
education has become slightly wider at Year 5 for the majority of the other SES groups. For
Mathematics the picture is not as consistent. Attainment for the group of children whose parents
were unemployed or not working has fallen, but for other groups the attainment gap has become
smaller and for the group of children whose parents were unskilled their relative attainment
position has improved. Taken together we can conclude that the impact of parents’ SES on
attainment in Mathematics has slightly decreased. In terms of eligibility for free school meals
(FSM), the impact has become slightly stronger for attainment in Reading but is little changed for
attainment in Mathematics.
Early Years Home Learning Environment (HLE) Measures
The quality of the early years HLE was found to be a very important factor for academic
outcomes at Year 5, controlling for all the other background variables. For attainment in Reading
in Year 5, the influence seems to be of the same strength, showing very little change compared
to Year 1. Looking at attainment in Mathematics, it appears that the strength of influence has
slightly decreased. Nonetheless, it still is a strong predictor of Mathematics attainment in Year 5.
The boxes in Figures 2.1 and 2.2 summarize the extent of any change in effects. Taken together
it appears that, for Reading more than Mathematics, the relative attainment gap related to some
of the key background measures has increased. However, the overall impact of background
factors on outcomes in Reading and Mathematics taken together appears to be reducing over
time.
Figure 2.1: The impact of child, family and HLE characteristics on Reading attainment at Year 5
compared to Year 1___________________________________________________
|
Reading: Effect Sizes - Year 5 compared to Year 1 | ||
|
Effect is now |
... Description | |
|
Gender |
same |
Girls show higher attainment in both years. |
|
Birth weight |
weaker |
Effect of birth weight has decreased. |
|
Ethnic groups |
stronger |
Some minority groups have fallen further |
|
Number of siblings |
slightly |
Effect of number of siblings has slightly |
|
Need of EAL support |
weaker |
Effect of need of EAL support has decreased. |
|
Developmental problems |
stronger |
Effect of early developmental problems has |
|
Parents qualification |
stronger |
Children of less well educated parents have |
|
SES |
slightly |
Gap between children of families with |
|
FSM |
stronger |
Gap between children eligible for FSM and |
|
Early years HLE |
same |
The Early Years HLE shows a continuing |
12