Today, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published the independent evaluation of Reception Jigsaw, a professional development programme which aims to improve maths teaching and outcomes for reception children (four- to five-year-olds).
Delivered by White Rose Maths, the programme is underpinned by core principles of early maths teaching, such as learning through play, using real objects and meaningful contexts to introduce learning, and building on individual children’s interests. Reception staff take part in five training twilights and five coaching sessions over the course of an academic year.
This evaluation of Reception Jigsaw, conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), looked at the impact of Reception Jigsaw on young children’s (four- to five-year-olds) maths development.
The researchers looked at data from 138 schools and found that children whose school took part in the programme made, on average, the equivalent of one extra month’s progress compared to those who did not.
The project was co-funded with the Department for Education.
Read the full report here.
Independent evaluations of two other education programmes have also been published today:
- Headsprout Early Reading in Special Schools(HERiSS): This computer-based reading intervention aims to support pupils in special schools with their early reading development. The programme delivers online “episodes” which target phonemic awareness, phonics and reading fluency. The evaluation of HERiSS – conducted by the University of Warwick – analysed data from 382 children from 55 schools. The study found that it was not possible to deliver the intervention as planned in the current environment and that pupils made no additional progress, on average, as a result of receiving the intervention. Read the full report here.
- Flexible Phonics: This intervention provides professional development to reception teaching staff, to support them in improving how they teach reading. Educators are taught new strategies to integrate into their practice, to use alongside their existing phonics provision. The evaluation of Flexible Phonics, conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies, found that children taught by educators who received Flexible Phonics training made one month’s less progress with early word recognition than those who weren’t. Read the full report here.
We’ve also published reports from two feasibility pilots of a new type of study, Teacher Choices, which investigate the impact of everyday decisions teachers make in their classrooms. These feasibility pilots were primarily designed to test the methodology itself, although the results of the content of the trials are also reported. Overall, the two studies found that the methodology has promise and is, under certain conditions, feasible to implement.
- Story Time: This pilot studied reading aloud to the whole class and assessed the impact of teachers stopping and asking questions whilst reading aloud for 15 minutes, compared to reading aloud without interruption. Conducted by NFER, the study involved 7,783 Year 4 and 5 pupils (eight- to ten-year-olds) from 91 primary schools. Pupils taught by teachers who stopped and asked questions while reading aloud scored higher in reading and listening comprehension, on average, than pupils taught by teachers who read aloud. Read the full report here.
- A Winning Start: This study looked at the beginning secondary science lessons with retrieval quizzes, compared to discussions to foreground new learning. Data from 1,074 Year 8 pupils (12 to 13-year-olds) from 15 schools was analysed as part of the evaluation, which was also led by NFER. There was no evidence that either approach has larger impact on pupils’ science attainment. Read the full report here. The report from a previous study of A Winning Start, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, has also been published today and is available here.
Finally, we’ve also published an update from a longitudinal research project, which looked at the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young children’s development. This study, conducted by NFER, tracks changes to the COVID-19 and socio-economic attainment gaps over time by assessing reading and maths attainment for children who were in reception at the onset of the pandemic. In addition to measuring reading and mathematics attainment, the study also looked at pupils’ social skills and school practices being undertaken as a response to the pandemic disruptions.
The researchers found that while pupils are making good progress in English and maths, the socio-economic disadvantage gap remains wide.
Read the full report here.