Priority 3: for every child - excellence in early education, every day
Commitment:
We will focus on workforce development. Building knowledge, skills, and excellence in early education, establishing the right foundation to address inequalities from conception because every child can succeed. We will strive to create a more equitable and prosperous future for all.
Playing and learning together – The home learning environment
In 2020 the Education Policy Institute added to the large body of research about the importance of the first five years in a child’s life. Research indicates that a child’s development at 22 months can predict their education achievements at the age of 16. By the Reception year, disadvantaged children are already 4.6 months behind their peers, a gap that widens to over 18 months by GCSE.
Inequalities are not a clear division between advantage and disadvantage, often they take the form of a gradient. These inequalities interconnect, with variations by socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, geography, and disability all influencing one another. There is a persistence of weaker outcomes related to childhood disadvantage and the prevalence of complex need.
Understanding the changing face of early childhood in our city and identifying priorities and next steps is a vital task to create systems of support that empower and meet the evolving needs of families with young children today and into the future.
Attending Early Years provision
Attendance at an early years setting, from what age, and the quality of education they receive has a significant effect on development. Sylva et al., 2012 EPPE Study. High-quality early years education is vitally important.
Children attend early years provision at a crucial development point in their lives. The education and care that they receive affects not only future educational attainment but also their future health and happiness (Ofsted, 2022).
Whether a child attends an early year setting, from what age, and the quality of education they receive has a significant effect on their development, critically affecting their growth (Sylva, Melhuish and Sammons et al., 2004; Sylva et al., 2012).
Where are we now? Some children are not getting the best start in life
A child’s level of development is assessed at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) on early learning goals in the prime areas of learning: personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language and the early learning goals in the specific areas of mathematics and literacy. Achievement at the ‘expected’ level in each of these areas leads to a child reaching a ‘Good Level of Development’ (GLD).
Inequalities in reaching a good level of development within Coventry are established by the age of 5. Whilst 63.3% of all the city’s 5-year-olds achieved a good level of development at age 5, in 2024 (63.9% in 2023), this was 4.3% lower than the national average of 67.7%.
These figures represent a lower proportion than the West Midlands average (66.2%) and lower than the average amongst Coventry’s statistical neighbour areas who achieved 64.8%.
Nationally, 51.5% of the most disadvantaged children achieve a good level of development and the figure is 51.2% for our statistical neighbours.
When considering disadvantaged 5-year olds in receipt of free school meals in Coventry, 49% achieved a good level of development, compared to 66.6% of children who do not. A 17.6% percentage point gap is seen between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children. Nationally this gap is wider at 19 ppt. However, our statistical neighbours have a slightly lower gap at 17.3ppt.
Children with SEND will be making progress relative to their starting points, however the achievement of pupils with SEND, measured by achievement of GLD for those receiving SEND Support is at 21.5% below National (23.6%) and statistical neighbours (23.7%).
In 2023 to 2024 children with an EHCP in Coventry did not achieve a Good Level of Development, 4.1% of children in statistical neighbour areas reached GLD and 3.9% of children nationally.
Comparing achievement by ethnic group, (+150 children within the group) children of Indian ethnicity in Coventry have the highest rate of achievement at 69.40% in 2023 to 2024. This is compared to:
- 66.8% English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish ethnicity
- 65.7% Asian / Asian British ethnicity.
- 65.3% White ethnicity.
- 64.7% Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups.
- 58.0% African ethnicity.
- 57.8% for Black / African / Caribbean / Black British ethnicity
The average achievement of a Good Level of development by the largest seven ethnicities in reception classes in 2023 to 2024 is 63.95%, is very slightly higher than the figure for all children (63.30%). In all 7 groups, girls do better than boys.
Attendance at early years funded provision whilst not statutory is important, especially where developmental delay is evident. It is also key to forming good habits in school attendance from an early stage. The Local Authority Interactive Tool data for 2023 to 2024 identifies an overall absence rate of 7.65% for 4-year-olds taken over 6.5 terms. This has decreased from 7.78% in 2021 to 2022 and 8.33% in 2022 to 2023 but remains a concern.
Workforce development is important to improve outcomes
A child’s early development is dependent on a variety of factors including the nature of their home environment, the circumstances in which they grow up, the warmth and security of their relationships, and the quality of their interactions with adults.
In 2022 the Education Endowment Foundation and Ofsted both reiterated that the quality of early education encompassing trusting relationships, purposeful interactions, high-quality pedagogy, and consistent learning routines, may be particularly significant for children encountering disadvantage, those for whom special educational needs are becoming apparent, and in addressing gaps in learning resulting from the pandemic (EEF, 2022; Ofsted, 2022a):
- in Coventry, in December 2024 there were 230 childcare providers (PVI and Childminders) registered on Ofsted’s Early Years and/or Childcare registers to deliver early years education, in addition to 70 schools delivering early education for children below reception class
- the Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) data for 2024 suggests that 34% of PVI childcare providers registered on Ofsted’s Early Years and/or Childcare registers had a graduate working within the team. This is a reduction of 3% from the previous year (37% in 2023) and 6% from 2022 (40%)
- in August 2024 97% of providers were judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness at their most recent inspection, in line with national figures
- the Early Years Service and Early Years SEND service provide access to training, support and advice, alongside digital support via web platforms. There is a traded training offer, with subsidised elements targeted in relation to data
- the professional development offer takes care to respond to the best available research evidence and include curricular content as well as pedagogical and procedural knowledge, embedded in real contexts. Where providers are working with the Early Years Service to develop practice, training is followed up with opportunities for reflection and feedback through coaching and peer group discussion
- an ongoing challenge is seen in relation to low levels of take up of training, both delivered remotely and face to face, due to the recruitment retention, and funding difficulties seen nationally
Priority 3: what this means for every child
Marmot principles
- 5. Reducing inequalities in the development of physical and emotional health, cognitive, linguistic, and social skills of children at the age of 5
What will we do?
- Leadership and Workforce Development:
- identify Early Years Network Leads to create a school-based leadership development model
- develop a model for specialist early years leader support in Coventry
- introduce a Coventry Early Years Induction Programme for all new practitioners
- build capacity through workforce training in Communication, Language, and Literacy and Maths to improve Early Learning Goal outcomes
- provide multi-disciplinary training for school readiness, co-designed by partners across health, education, and therapy services
- Quality Assurance and Improvement:
- implement a Coventry Early Years Quality Mark to sustain provider quality over a 6-year inspection window
- establish a Quality Assurance model for Early Learning in Family Hubs
- implement and evaluate a SEND Early Years Quality Standard
- Inclusive SEND Support:
- expand training for mainstream practitioners to better support the increasing number of SEND referrals
- develop a coaching and network model to help practitioners achieve the Early Years SEND qualification
- support inclusive practice in mainstream education settings for children with SEND
- Family Support and Engagement:
- use non-participation surveys to better understand barriers to accessing services for families with children under 5
- evaluate the Front Door pilot. Explore introducing a ‘key contact’ to ensure continuity of support
- make families aware of app-based resources (e.g. Pause Parenting, NHS Dad Pad) through targeted communications.
- Develop guidance and documentation to support:
- Nursery and school transitions.
- Understanding the value of regular attendance.
- improving data-sharing to identify and support children at risk of missing Early Education
- Music and creative learning:
- provide resources for integrating music into early years learning.
- develop resource kits with musical instruments, books, and lesson plans.
- invest in research on music’s impact on early childhood development.
- deliver training workshops and seminars to develop musical pedagogy as part of a new music strategy.
- establish online platforms for sharing session plans, resources, and best practices
Outcome Succeed - we will know that we have been successful when:
Outcomes
- more of us will achieve the Good level of Development measure at the end of Reception by 2027 to 2028 and our achievement will be closer to that of our statistical neighbours by 2027 to 2028
- the gap between percentage of us who are disadvantaged and the percentage who are non-disadvantaged will close from 19.6 ppt in the 2023 to 2024 academic year by 2027 to 2028
- through this strategy will continue to attend early years provision which is judged to effective at the point of Ofsted inspection. Outcomes will be sustained in line with the national figure, currently this is 96% in Coventry and nationally
Performance measures
- between 2025 and 2028 increase the percentage of all children achieving a good level of development at the end of Reception and reduce the gap to national outcomes
- between 2025 and 2028 increase percentage of disadvantaged children achieving GLD at the end of EYFS and move closer to Statistical Neighbours
- between 2025 and 2028 increase percentage of all children who achieve the ELG for CLL in Coventry and move closer to Statistical Neighbours
- Early Talk Boost: extend the numbers who receive training to deliver ETB by a further 25 over each of the next 2 years
- between 2025 and 2028 increase in the number of parents who access digital start for life services at universal and targeted level
- more parents of children aged 2 to 4, access HLE programmes delivered by a range of professionals including health and early years practitioners, and VCFS organisations
- develop outreach work through Coventry Libraries & Information Services to targeted Nurseries in under-resourced communities
- establish an online early years music forum and digital resource library to share resources, session plans, and best practice
- sixty percent of registered EY providers will attend training in relation to supporting speech, language and communication
- fifty percent of Early Years providers have a trained Communication Champion
- between 2025 and 2028 increase the take up of targeted 2-year old Early Years Education entitlements (67.2%)
- maintain current take up of Early Years Education Universal Entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds (90%) and move closer to statistical neighbours (95.7%)
