went on to attend a more academically effective primary school. Another hypothesis tested was
that high quality or highly effective pre-school experience would have a protective effect on
children’s later educational outcomes if they went on to attend a less effective primary school.
An additional set of value added analyses investigated pupils’ academic progress from the end of
Year 1 to the end of Year 5 of primary school education. The assessments at the end of Year 1
provided the baseline measures for these analyses of relative gains in Reading and Mathematics
over time. In addition to the simple value added model that controls only for prior attainments,
contextualised models were developed to investigate which child, family and HLE background
factors and characteristics pre- and primary school experience are predictive for relative higher
or lower progress in Reading and Mathematics.
The importance of educational experiences in shaping outcomes at Year 5 has been highlighted
by the results reported in sections 3 and 4 of this report. Although ‘home’ children have begun to
catch up from a lower starting point an attainment gap remains at the end of Year 5; though this
also mainly reflects the relatively more disadvantaged backgrounds of these children.
It is shown that pre-school influences remain evident even after five years full time in primary
school. However, at this stage attending any pre-school by itself is not sufficient to ensure better
outcomes in the longer term. We find that both measures of the quality and of the effectiveness
of the pre-school setting attended predict better cognitive outcomes. Poor quality pre-school,
however, does not improve outcomes in Year 5, whereas medium and especially high quality
pre-school experience provides moderate benefits. The results indicate that pre-school
influences are somewhat stronger for Mathematics than for Reading.
EPPE 3-11 is the first large scale longitudinal study to investigate both pre-school and primary
school influences on young children’s attainment and progress. Results demonstrate that the
academic effectiveness of the primary school attended has an additional positive and statistically
significant influence on children’s attainment in Year 5. In interpreting these results it is important
to recognise that the measures of academic effectiveness were derived for all primary schools in
England from analyses of the progress of different pupil cohort’s National assessments using
value added approaches and provide independent measures not based on the EPPE sample. In
addition the research is unique in having investigated for the first time the combined influence of
pre-school and primary school effects. For ‘home’ children in particular, the effectiveness of the
primary school attended helps to raise attainment (for those who attend a highly effective primary
school there is a particular boost to Mathematics attainment). By contrast, attending a high
quality or more effective pre-school seems to act as a protective factor for children who go on to
attend a less effective primary school.
Overview and discussion of Findings on Home, Pre-School, and Primary School
Influences on Children’s Attainment in Year 5
Children’s background characteristics
■ The results of the analyses of these influences have identified the size and nature of the
equity gap in achievement for different groups of pupils and how it changes over time at
different points in children’s pre-school and school careers. The main findings indicate
that other social and demographic factors are important in accounting for much of the
equity gap in attainment at Year 5 evident in simple comparisons of average attainment
levels for different ethnic groups. They can inform thinking on appropriate policy and
practical strategies to reduce the achievement gap and enhance outcomes for vulnerable
groups. The information is highly relevant to policy concerns to promote social inclusion
and equality of opportunity and the results have contributed to the evidence base
examined by the Government’s Equalities Review
(http://www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk/).
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