Nursery World - Early Years in School: Inclusion

A research project could hold the answers to the problem of white boys from poorer backgrounds underperforming at school. By Hannah Crown

The link between a child’s social class and their ability to achieve in the classroom has been a hot topic for decades. Back in 1956, the landmark Social Class and Educational Opportunity report found that the educability of children ‘is determined by the subtle interaction of the social influences of home and school’. Author Jean Floud showed that differences in the environment of children from different social classes affected their performance in tests. Sixty years on, the issue is often framed by the underperformance of white working class boys, the worst-performing social group in the UK.

Recent research includes Ofsted’s Unseen Children report in 2013, while Theresa May felt compelled to raise the issue in her first speech as Prime Minister last year, when she said, ‘If you’re a white, working-class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.’ (Just 9 per cent of white 18-year-old males who received free school meals do.)

White boys on free school meals already perform worse than any other ethnic group by Key Stage 1, and by age 16 are less than half as likely to get five good GCSEs as a Bangladeshi British boy in the same circumstances.

The High Achieving White Working Class (HAWWC) Boys project was set up to find out what enables the tiny minority to achieve against the odds. Chris Pascal, co-author of the resultant report (with Tony Bertram), says, ‘All the research focuses on the problems. We wanted to flip that on its head – what happened when things went right. And we found these boys were achieving as well as those boys from very privileged backgrounds.’

THE HAWWC BOYS PROJECT

In the project, a total of 30 boys, their families and their pre-school workers, from Birmingham, rural Oxfordshire and Scarborough, were interviewed. Their EYFS Profile results were in the highest 15 per cent nationally when they reached five. The study found the boys all to be ‘strong, highly competent, motivated young children who had high levels of social and emotional skill’.

A variety of elements created the ‘academic resilience’ that protected these boys and enabled them to achieve, says Professor Pascal. ‘It was the parent and the boy together that sets a circle of security. The extraordinary thing was the parent was doing the [ordinary] right things in extraordinary circumstances,’ she adds.

The circumstances were these: of the parents(s) interviewed, half had mental health problems, roughly half had no contact whatsoever with the child’s father, and some were completely alone with no family support. Some were clinically depressed. Some were recovering substance/alcohol abusers. All were on low incomes and some were in poverty.

Despite this, all were found to demonstrate ‘parenting resilience’ and be ‘highly attentive and competent’. None of the parents knew they were particularly good at parenting. Ms Pascal adds, ‘When we said, “I am really interested in how you are enabling your child to achieve”, they would say, “I don’t know, I don’t do anything”, and we would ask them about their day and all this extraordinary stuff would come out.’

FINDINGS

Home relationships, the home learning environment, and the strategies deployed by the early years setting were all identified as crucial elements in ‘creating’ a high-achieving boy. Successful white boys all demonstrated ‘a key attachment, usually with the mother. The child had the ability to shield the adult and encourage the adult to respond to them, and they did,’ says Prof Pascal.

This was characterised by ‘affectionate, loving, playful, physical and committed interactions’. One parent commented, ‘He reminds me to be kinder to myself.’

Prof Pascal adds, ‘There were rules, but not rigid rules. They would have a meal together, there would be bedtime and getting-up rituals. They spent their day in companionship doing stuff together, and generally the parent was following the boy’s lead. They encouraged boys to take the initiative, without expectations. The parent really enjoyed time with their child.’

Lack of resources was not a barrier to play. Prof Pascal says, ‘They don’t come from families with lots of books. Some didn’t have any. They all talked a lot. They went outside a lot. Sometimes the reason was to get out of the chaos. They had long walks together on the beach or in the park. The child also helped reduce the isolation of the parent. The child became a broker for interactions with other adults.’ (See case study, below.)

EARLY YEARS STRATEGIES

The HAWWC Boys study found most of the high-achieving children had accessed their early education entitlement from two years. It says, ‘The perceived skills and competence of the key worker are critical in facilitating or reducing take-up of places, with some parents needing a lot of encouragement to engage with provision. Where the key worker had developed a strong and lasting relationship with both the parent and child … and tailored their support individually, the benefit to both … was clear.’

Fordbridge Childcare Plus is a school-run full daycare setting on a school site in Solihull. While 20 of the 24 boys are white, just one is at the expected level. Following a targeted campaign to attract parents on low incomes, 57 per cent of the children are funded two-year-olds.

Leza Forrester, early years manager, recognises that better partnership working with parents and the subsequent impact on the home environment should help improve outcomes for these boys.

‘We thought about workshops, but while we get a good uptake from a core group of parents, we don’t get all of them,’ she says. A more radical approach, which involved borrowing a Peppa Pig costume for an hour-long stay-and-play session, attracted 20 parents. Another idea was a Christmas crafts workshop with parents and children taking part.

‘We had the setting divided up into zones with a practitioner in each zone leading play and encouraging parents to get involved,’ says Ms Forrester. ‘While some parents didn’t bring children in that day, those that did really enjoyed it and went away with activities to do at home.’ As a result of these sessions, she says, when the setting does run a less obviously fun workshop (such as on toilet training), it is better attended.

With the hardest-to-engage parents, she adds, ‘We are also able to make referrals to the early help team, and the school runs parenting classes and a parent support group. A parent needs to be open to go with this, but we’ve had lots of success stories.’

The HAWWC Boys report has prompted Ms Forrester to use Early Years Pupil Premium money to purchase gym sessions, which also incorporate PSED and maths. ‘When you know that children are progressing in one area, such as outside play, we use that as the foundation for progression in areas they are weaker in. Half the time they don’t even realise they are doing it.’

Practitioners can also, Prof Pascal says, remember to tell parents when they are doing well. ‘When you are struggling with life or have no self-esteem and somebody says to you “that is fantastic” – do not underestimate that small thing. A parent may have never heard it before.’

She adds, ‘This is a very optimistic project because it is saying that a lot of the solutions can be found by giving communities support. These parents do not need a parenting programme. That doesn’t mean they didn’t need support to carry on doing what they were doing. You don’t need to put lots of money in, and parental resilience can be built.’

Prof Pascal’s team is now trying to get funding to launch a parent ambassadors scheme, as well as repeat the research with different groups, and track the 30 boys through school. Local authorities are also taking the work forward, including a parenting app that includes information and support.

CASE STUDY: KAREN AND JAYDEN

One parent featured in the report was single mum Karen Sedgwick, who moved to Scarborough with son Jayden, now seven. She left her job, as a sales manager, and friends in Buckinghamshire, and now works part-time as a dinner lady. Jayden has no contact with his father.

She says, ‘I came here because of the house prices and because it was by the sea. To buy a two-bedroom house I would have had to go back to work full-time, and I didn’t want Jayden to think, as he wasn’t going to have his dad, that I wasn’t going to be around as well.

‘I have read to him since he was born. I would lie on the floor next to him reading his books and holding up the pictures. Everybody knows that reading is essential. It was also bonding time. I think he just liked the sound of my voice, it made him feel safe. Now he is older he always has his nose in a book. We still read most days.

‘[When Jayden was pre-school age] we would go out every day. We go to the parks and to the beach. We used to do things like treasure hunts where we would write a list of things we had to find and cross them off as we saw them. We had to think of things to do that didn’t cost money. We also went to the mums and tots group. It was essential that I made friends.

‘I’m very strict with him with table manners and behaviour. I feel if we are going to do all these lovely things and go to all these clubs – he now does Beavers, karate and gym – then he has to develop the responsibility to go with that. We have a very healthy diet. He is quite tiny so I have tried to cook a lunch and evening dinner.

‘I haven’t got a lot of money from my job and I’m on benefits but I’ve never been happier. I do feel the pressure, and I have to keep going for him. But he has absolutely completed my life; he is wonderful.

‘I have always known Jayden was clever but I had never put it down to anything I had done. You don’t know whether it is nature or nurture. When the pre-school teacher said you can tell I’ve been at home with him it was like everything I have done has been worth it.’

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