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Appendix 2: Characteristics of the Sample at the End of Year 5

The research design used to recruit the sample for the original EPPE study is described in detail
in EPPE Technical Paper 1 (Sylva et al., 1999) and the main findings of Phase 1 are reported in
Technical Paper 12 (Sylva et al., 2004). Details on the main findings of the analyses conducted
on children’s attainments and progress up to the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) can be found in
Technical paper 11 (Sammons et al., 2004b).

Since the start of the study 10 years ago, the EPPE children have been assessed using cognitive
assessments at various time points. This report refers to two time points in which cognitive
assessments were taken for all children: at the end of Year 1 (age 6) and at the end of Year 5
(age 10). The assessments at these two time points seemed to be most comparable, because
cognitive attainment was assessed with the same type of psychometric test in Reading and
Mathematics.

This section provides descriptive statistics for the sample at the end of Year 5.

Tables A1.1a to A1.1c provide a brief summary of the characteristics of the EPPE 3-11 sample at
the end of Year 5 for whom any cognitive outcome data (NFER Nelson standardised
assessments in Reading and / or Mathematics) were collected (N = 2,556).8

Fifty-one per cent of the children are boys whereas forty-nine per cent are girls. There were
almost a quarter of children in the sample whose ethnic background was not white UK and
eleven per cent of the children had English as an additional language. However, the number of
children who still needed support because of English being an additional language was smaller
at the end of Year 5 (3.7 %). With respect to family structure fourteen per cent of the children
lived in large families with 3 or more siblings.

Table A1.1a also shows the distribution of the early years home learning environment (HLE)
index which is a combined measure of aspects of the quality of the home learning environment in
the early years. A number of measures collected at the entry to study from the parent interviews
provided an indication of aspects of the HLE in the early years. These are based on the
frequency of engagement in specific activities involving the child, such as teaching the alphabet,
reading to the child, listen to the child read, taking the child to the library etc. (as reported by the
parents). Table A1.1a shows that forty-three per cent of the children in the sample belong to the
two highest HLE categories, indicating that the HLE during the pre-school period was good or
very good for these children. With regard to pre-school experience one can say that 237 ‘home’
children were still in the sample (9.3 %).

8 This represents almost the whole sample as the responses of 7 children were still awaited when analysis
was undertaken.

38



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