Research 

The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project investigated the effects of preschool education and care on children’s development for children aged 3-7 years old. The EPPE team collected a wide range of information on 3,000 children who were recruited at age 3+ and studied longitudinally until the end of Key Stage 1. Data were collected on children’s developmental profiles (at ages 3, 4/5, 6 and 7 years), background characteristics related to their parents, the child’s home learning environment, and the pre-school settings children attended. Settings (141) were drawn from a range of providers (local authority day nurseries, integrated1 centres, playgroups, private day nurseries, nursery schools and nursery classes). A sample of ‘home’ children, (who had no or minimal pre-school experience) were recruited to the study at entry to school for comparison with the pre-school group. In addition to investigating the effects of pre-school provision, EPPE explored the characteristics of effective practice (and the pedagogy which underpins it) through twelve intensive case studies of settings where children had positive outcomes. This research report summarises the empirical work published in eleven Technical Papers