The Government has three stated aims for early education and care: supporting child development, reducing inequalities and enabling parents to enter employment. The second is particularly important in the United Kingdom where the gaps between educational outcomes for rich and poor are among the largest in the developed world. Several decades of international research has shown that early childhood education reduces the gaps in attainment between rich and poor children – but only if it is of high-quality.
Findings from the Effective Pre-school Primary and Secondary Education project
The Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) project followed 3,000 children from early childhood to age 16 and showed that their GCSE results and social development were influenced by what happened to them as young children. The report on EPPSE outcomes at age 16+ was published in September and showed that early learning at pre-school made a positive difference to the lives of young people at the end of compulsory education.
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