Nursery World - Study claims early years initiatives show 'no impact'

Children's vocabulary and their ability to count and recognise shapes and letters when they start school has not changed since the introduction of Government early years initiatives, including Sure Start children's centres and the expansion of free nursery education, claims a new report.

The Durham University Study assessed 35,000 children in 124 primary schools in England just after they started reception in every year from 2001 to 2006.

Durham University's CEM Centre collects data on thousands of children when they start school using Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) tests to assess their knowledge of vocabulary, letters and words, their phonological awareness, and their ability to identify shapes, recognise rhymes and count.

To measure counting skills, children were shown objects disappearing from a computer screen and then asked how many objects they saw.

Dr Christine Merrell, co-author of the report, said that PIPs gave 'good quality data' for predicting children's later achievement. She said that she would have expected 'some measurable changes' and that 'Sure Start should be having an impact when children start school'.

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