What we've learned about engaging parents from our evaluation of Peep Learning Together

3 March 2023

EEF’s Learning Behaviour Content Specialist, Hannah Heron discusses key takeaways from our evaluation of the Peep parental engagement programme.

Hannah Heron

Content Specialist for Learning Behaviours

‘Parents interest and involvement in their children’s learning is consistently associated with positive outcomes for children of all age groups.’

EEF Guidance Report: Working with parents to support children’s learning

The EEF’s Early Years Toolkit indicates that engaging parents and carers in their young child’s learning can boost early development by up to five months.

The perennial challenge for educators has been working out how to effectively put this evidence into practice, finding the answer to the age-old question: what does purposeful parental engagement look like in practice?

The Peep Learning Together Programme, developed by Peeple, is a structured approach to increasing parental engagement in the early years that focuses on providing increased support for parents and carers of young children. The programme aims to improve parenting skills and the quality of the home learning environment by providing families with practical advice and activities on how to support their child’s early development.

What did the trial tell us about the effectiveness of the Peep Learning Together Programme?

The headline finding from the EEF’s efficacy trial of the Peep LTS programme, published in February 2020, was that pupils in the intervention group made, on average, no additional progress in core language skills, compared to children in the control group. These results have a moderate-to-high security rating.

The evaluation did find that the programme had a positive effect on children’s early literacy development. And, new subgroup analysis from the evaluation, published today, also indicates that children eligible for the early years pupil premium who received the Peep Learning Together programme made accelerated progress with their core language skills and communication, and early literacy development, in comparison to children eligible for the early years pupil premium who did not receive the programme.

What can we learn from the evaluation of the Peep Learning Together programme?

The report from the evaluation of this programme shows that engaging parents was a key challenge for settings – 23% of the parents and carers who were offered the intervention did not attend a single session. However, it should be noted that those parents who attended at least one session went on to attend, on average, 70% of those conducted during the delivery period.

Feedback from practitioners suggests that it may have been the length of the programme (20 weeks) that presented a barrier for some parents.

The evidence base strongly shows that parental engagement is a key lever for settings looking to raise attainment – so how can schools make sure that their interventions have the best chance of being successful?

1. Make it manageable – pre-empt potential barriers

For parental engagement to work it must meet the needs of the parents and carers in your community. Reviewing how you work with parents might be a good place to start. Getting practical feedback from directly from families about the times of the day they are likely to be free, and their views on the planned duration of a programme could help to encourage their participation in planned interventions.

[Recommendation 1 from working with parents to support children’s learning]

2. Provide practical strategies

 The content of the Peep Learning Together programme was underpinned by evidence on providing practical strategies to support learning at home. In the early years, age-appropriate activities might include encouraging parents to share books at home through offering up tips and activities to read in a more interactive way.

[Recommendation 2 from working with parents to support children’s learning]

3. Carefully target support 

The data from the sub-group analysis is encouraging and could support the argument for careful targeting of pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. It is vital however, that targeting is done sensitively to avoid stigmatising, blaming, or discouraging parents. One possible approach is to provide a universal offer but give extra support and encouragement to parents within your target group.

[Recommendation 4 from working with parents to support children’s learning]

Peep evaluation report