ABSTRACT
A child’s first day at school can be memorable for good and bad reasons but their first year in the classroom can make all the difference to whether they thrive at school or permanently lag behind.
Major long-term research is reviewed which shows all children in effective Reception classes in English schools getting further ahead than contemporaries learning in less effective Reception classrooms elsewhere.
Effective classrooms were identified as classes making much better progress, initially in literacy and numeracy assessments, than the average for similar classes once differences such as age on entry, gender, ethnicity, deprivation and special needs had been taken into account.
The research found girls making more progress in English and reading, children with English as a second language making more progress and ethnic minority children making the same or more progress than white children overall. Deprived children made the slowest progress which led to poorer GCSE results.
Only 2.5 per cent of classrooms studied were found to be effective in the school start they were giving to children. Evidence from older, smaller research studies paints a similar picture.
