Contents Page Number
Executive Summary i
Introduction 1
Aims 2
Methods 2
Section 1: The Impact of different Child, Family and Early Years Home Learning
Environment (HLE) Characteristics on Reading and Mathematics Attainment in Year 5 4
Child Measures 6
Family Measures 7
Early Years Home Learning Environment (HLE) Measures 9
Summary of Background Influences 10
Section 2: Changes in the Impact of Background Factors on Children’s Cognitive
Attainments in Year 5 Compared to Year 1 11
Child Measures 11
Family Measures 11
Early Years Home Learning Environment (HLE) Measures 12
Section 3: The Impact of Pre-school and Primary School on Children’s Reading and
Mathematics Attainment in Year 5 13
The Continuing Impact of Pre-School 15
1. Pre-School Attendance and Duration of Pre-School Experience 15
2. Pre-school Centre Quality 15
3. Pre-school Centre Effectiveness 16
4. The Combined Impact of Early Years Home Learning Environment (HLE) and Pre-
School Experience 16
Early Years HLE and the Quality of the Pre-school 17
Early Years HLE and Pre-school Effectiveness 18
5. Different Pre-school effects for Different Groups of Children 19
Multiple Disadvantage and the impact of pre-school experience 19
Parents’ qualification level and the impact of pre-school experience 19
The Impact of Primary School Effectiveness 20
Different influences of primary school effectiveness for different groups of children 21
1. Multiple disadvantage and the impact of primary school effectiveness 21
2. Parents’ Qualifications and the impact of primary school effectiveness 22
The Combined impact of Pre-school Experience and Primary School Effectiveness 22
The combined impact of pre-school effectiveness and primary school effectiveness 24
Summary of Pre- and Primary School Influences 25
Section 4: Exploring Children’s Reading and Mathematics Progress between Year 1
and Year 5 27
Summary and Conclusions 28
The Influence of Child Factors, Family Factors and HLE 29
Overview and discussion of Findings on Home, Pre-School, and Primary School
Influences on Children’s Attainment in Year 5 30
Implications 31
References 33
Appendix 1: EPPE Technical Papers in the series 36
Appendix 2: Characteristics of the Sample at the End of Year 5 38
Appendix 3: Raw differences in attainment in Reading and Mathematics at the end of
Year 5 44
Appendix 4: Details of selected measures used in the EPPE study 47
Appendix 5: Effect Sizes 48
Glossary of terms 49