EasyPeasy (Addendum Report)
The EasyPeasy intervention is designed to improve the home learning environment, support parents’ wellbeing, and improve children’s early developmental outcomes.
EasyPeasy is parenting programme that shares tips and activity ideas to parents of children from 0 – 5 to support their early development.
During our trial of EasyPeasy, the programme was delivered over a period of 20 weeks with parents and carers of nursery-aged children (three- to four- year-olds). Families were sent weekly text messages that suggested activities they could play with their pre-school child. These activities aimed to encourage high quality interactions, and were based on the key areas of learning from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
New longitudinal analysis – which explored the long-term impact of this version of the programme – suggests that children who participated in EasyPeasy were more likely to achieve a “good level of development” (GLD) in their EYFS Profile assessment, when measured a year after the intervention took place. 81% of children who took part in the programme achieved the GLD, compared to 77% who did not receive the programme.
For more information and to access the report, click here.
Peep Learning Together Programme (Addendum Report)
The Peep Learning Together Programme, developed by Peeple, is designed to help parents and carers build a positive home learning environment for their young children. The programme, delivered over the course of 20 weeks, provides families with advice on how children learn, and how to make the most of everyday activities such as listening, talking, playing, singing, and sharing books together.
The EEF-funded trial, evaluated by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, involved just under 1,500 children (three to four year olds) from 139 nursery settings. Previous findings from this trial, published in 2020, showed that children who received the intervention made no additional progress with their core language skills and communication compared with those who didn’t.
However, new exploratory analysis published today suggests that children eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium who took part in Peep made four months’ additional progress in core language skills and communication in comparison to those in the control group, and three months’ additional progress in early literacy development. However, the small sample size for this analysis means the security of these findings is lower than that of the overall findings.
For more information and to access the report, click here.
Learning Language and Loving It (LLLI)
Learning Language and Loving It™ – The Hanen Program® for Early Childhood Educators (Hanen LLLI) is a training programme designed to support early years professionals with developing young children’s language, literacy and social skills. This approach involves providing staff with practical strategies to enhance communication and language skills, as well as specifying ways to interact with children during normal daily routines.
The EEF previously funded a trial of Hanen LLLI, which was unable to make conclusions about the programme’s impact on children’s language skills due to Covid-related disruption. However, during this trial, practitioners reported that they would prefer that the programme used a mixture of in-person and online training sessions.
Today’s pilot study, evaluated by NatCen, aimed to establish the feasibility of this approach. 35 early years professionals took part in the study, which found that this mixed-mode approach worked well and was met with positive feedback from participants.
Findings from this evaluation have been used to inform improvements to the Hanen LLLI programme ahead of a new efficacy trial which began in November 2022.
For more information and to access the report, click here.
School Partnerships Programme
The Education Development Trust’s (EDT) School Partnership Programme (SPP) aims to support partnership-based school collaboration and peer review. The programme is designed to build capacity and capability across clusters of schools, so they can gradually take more responsibility for their own development and lead their own improvement.
Key members of staff are nominated to receive EDT training around school self-review, peer review and school-to-school support as part of the programme.
The EEF-funded trial of this programme involved 442 primary schools. Due to disruption caused by the pandemic, it was not possible to establish the impact of SPP on pupil outcomes. However, teacher surveys show that most participants felt that the initiative led to a positive overall impact on their pupils.
Find out more and access the full report here.