■ The multilevel results indicate that, taken together, background influences on attainment
in Year 5 are relatively weaker than they were in Year 1 (reducing in their ability to
account for variations in children’s attainment by about 50%). This is likely to indicate the
increased contribution of schools and possible peer group influences and reductions in
the importance of English as an additional language (EAL).
■ Nonetheless, in raw terms the attainment gap at the end of Year 5 remains significant and
has widened for some groups. The analyses of the net contribution of different
characteristics through a study of changes in effect sizes indicates those pupil groups for
which there has been a relative improvement, or by contrast a relative decline during Key
Stage 2 although for some groups the attainment gap has actually changed direction (for
example, boys and those of Indian ethnic background are now doing better in
Mathematics in contrast to findings at younger ages).
■ The results indicate that much of the apparent difference in attainment between ethnic
groups (measured in terms of mean raw scores) is strongly related to differences in
influential demographic factors (HLE, parents’ qualifications, SES, income etc), although
there are still some (relatively) low and high attaining groups.
■ Overall we find that multiple disadvantage remains an important correlate of children’s
educational outcomes, in line with findings at younger ages. This result points to the
persistence and strength of disadvantage and the importance of interventions to target
support for the most vulnerable groups of children.
■ The strongest net effects of background factors on Reading and Mathematics outcomes
at Year 5 are for measures of early years HLE and parents’ qualification levels, followed
by low birth weight, need for EAL support, early health (for Mathematics) or
developmental problems (for Reading) and family SES.
■ The analyses produce new evidence of continuing pre-school effects for attainment in
Reading and especially in Mathematics. In contrast to findings on the impact of longer
duration (in months) of pre-school at age rising 5, 6 and 7 years, it is differences in the
quality and effectiveness of pre-school that continue to contribute to better outcomes in
the longer term, rather than just attending or not attending a pre-school setting or
attending pre-school for a longer amount of time.
■ Although ‘home’ children (those who did not attend any pre-school) have begun to catch
up from a much lower starting point, an attainment gap remains. However, those children
who attended low quality pre-school no longer show cognitive benefits after five years in
primary school and their results are not significantly different from the ‘home’ group.
■ The academic effectiveness of the primary school a child attends (measured
independently by value added in National assessments) is a significant influence on later
attainment. Those who went on to attend a more academically effective primary school
showed significantly better attainment at Year 5.
Implications
The research provides new evidence concerning the combined effects of pre-school and primary
school in shaping children’s educational outcomes. The findings demonstrate that it is important
to raise the quality and effectiveness of both.
The results show that for more disadvantaged children high quality and high effectiveness of the
pre-school seems to be necessary to obtain long lasting benefits in cognitive outcomes. For less
disadvantaged groups pre-school generally shows more impact, irrespective of quality. The
research reveals the strength of the influence of early years HLE but also highlights interesting
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