The latest study from the Effective Pre-School and Primary Education 3-11 Project looked at the way classroom practices and factors at school level influenced children's academic and social and behavioural development.
Researchers found that they made a significant difference, after taking into account children's family background and prior attainment.
The EPPE 3-11 study follows the same sample of children that took part in the study covering pre-school to the end of primary school.
The latest research involved classroom observation in a sub-sample of 1,160 children in 125 Year 5 classes.
The report said that it was possible to group teachers in Year 5 in terms of their overall teaching quality across a range of observed classroom behaviour and practices.
Children in schools where Year 5 overall teaching quality was observed to be high did 'significantly better in both reading and maths' than those in schools where Year 5 overall teaching quality was low.
On a school level, children who attended more effective and improved schools showed longer-term benefits in social and behavioural outcomes as well as academic ones.
The report said, 'Even when the powerful influences of child, family and home are controlled, going to a "better" primary school exerts a positive net influence on children's academic progress and also on social behavioural outcomes.'
Co-author of the research, Professor Edward Melhuish of Birkbeck College, London, said, 'Primary school teaching quality does make a definite difference to a child's progress.The Government needs to pay more attention to the differences in the quality of teaching, because it does matter.'
Further information:
'The Influence of School and Teaching Quality on Children's Progress in Primary School' is available at www.dcsf.gov.uk/research.
