The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has today released further analysis from their independent evaluation of the early years programme Maths Champions, which suggests longer-term benefits on children’s early maths development.
The programme, delivered by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), aims to support maths development for three- to four-year-olds in early years settings by providing high-quality professional development for practitioners. One member of staff in each early years setting is given training to act as a ‘Maths Champion’, supporting their colleagues to implement and improve their maths teaching practices.
This latest analysis of Maths Champions, undertaken by a team from the University of York and Durham University, looked at Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) assessment data from the National Pupil Database (NPD), to find out if the programme had an impact on children’s development at the end of reception, a year after its delivery in nurseries.
They found that children in early years settings who took part in the programme made on average two months’ additional progress in mathematics and language attainment by the end of reception, compared to a group of similar children in settings who did not take part.
This progress was even greater for children eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP), who were seen to make on average the equivalent of six months’ additional progress in maths attainment. With all these estimates there is some statistical uncertainty, as the impact estimate ranges are wide, and therefore should be treated with caution.
This new analysis adds to existing evaluation of the effectiveness of the approach, which looked at progress by the end of the initial programme delivery period. The main evaluation of the programme, published by the EEF last year, found that children in early years settings who took part in the programme made, on average, three months’ additional progress in maths development compared to a similar group of children in settings that didn’t take part in the programme.
Estimated costs of the programme as trialled were around £28 per child per year, meaning that the intervention offers a low-cost option for early years settings looking to support the maths development of children in their care.
Further evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of the Maths Champions programme comes at a time when there is a specific spotlight on early years maths skills. In their election manifesto released last month, the Labour Party outlined their commitment to improving the quality of numeracy teaching across nurseries as part of their education pledges.
The EEF has published three other evaluation reports today. The first two investigate other programmes aimed at early years and primary school aged children.
- Improving Working Memory plus arithmetic: This intervention aims to improve working memory and arithmetic skills for pupils in Year 3, specifically pupils with low prior attainment. It is delivered through a number of weekly one to one session with a Teaching Assistant. The evaluation was a RCT that involved 1417 pupils from 184 schools. Pupils in schools using the intervention made small improvements in working memory and attention, but no additional progress in number skills, compared to pupils in other schools.
- Hanen – Learning Language and Loving It (LLLI):This is a continuous professional development training programme for early years practitioners to promote social, language and literacy learning amongst three- to four-year-olds in nurseries. The evaluation, conducted by The National Centre for Social Research, used a two-arm RCT approach and included 962 pupils in 70 treatment settings and 889 pupils in 68 control settings. The aim of the evaluation was to understand any impact on language development, measured by BPVS‑3 score. Children in LLLI settings made the equivalent of 1 additional months’ progress in language development, on average, compared to children in other settings. These results had a moderate to high security rating.
A further evaluation focuses on approaches to scaling up a professional development programme for teachers.
- Embedding Formative Assessment (EFA) Scale-Up:EFA is a professional development programme that demonstrated an impact equivalent to two additional months’ progress in pupil outcomes by embedding formative assessment strategies within the school (1). This evaluation, a collaboration between the SSAT (The Schools, Students and Teachers Network) and the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), aimed to understand how to effectively scale up this approach by assessing its implementation in new schools over four years. The research explored seven key topics through ten case study schools, staff surveys, administrative data analysis and a combination of observations, interviews, and workshops with SSAT. The evaluation found that a range of factors supported the effective adoption and implementation of the programme at scale, including key changes in the programme’s strategy to support scaling and the availability of a government subsidy for the programme fee. The evaluation draws on these findings to make recommendations for scaling education interventions in England.
Commenting on the evaluations released today, Professor Becky Francis CBE, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), said:
Commenting on the Maths Champions evaluation, Purnima Tanuku OBE, Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said:
Minister for Early Education, Stephen Morgan, said:
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Sources
(1) https://educationendowmentfoun…