This report investigates the way school and classroom processes affect the cognitive
progress and social/behavioural development of children between the ages of 6 (Year 1)
and 10 (Year 5) in primary schools in England.
The research is part of the larger longitudinal study of Effective Pre-School and Primary
Education (EPPE 3-11) funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families
(DCSF) that is following children’s cognitive and social/behavioural development from
ages 3 to 11 years. The EPPE 3-11 study investigates both pre-school and primary
school influences on children’s attainment, progress and social/behavioural
development. This report describes the results of quantitative analyses based on a subsample
of 1160 EPPE children across Year 1 to 5 of primary education. The research
builds on the earlier analyses of children’s Reading and Mathematics attainments and
social/behavioural outcomes in Year 5 for the full EPPE 3-11 sample (see Sammons,
2007a; 2007b), by investigating relationships between children’s outcomes and
measures of classroom processes, collected through direct observation of Year 5
classes in 125 focal schools chosen from the larger EPPE 3-11 data set. The analyses
also explore patterns of association between children’s outcomes and broader measures
of overall school characteristics derived from teacher questionnaires and Ofsted
inspection reports for this sub-sample of schools