Impact of teachers and school on primary children

This report by the DCSF investigates the way school and classroom processes affect the cognitive progress and social/behavioural development of children between the ages of 6 and 10 in primary schools in England.

Key findings:
- Both teachers’ classroom practice and overall school-level factors make a significant difference to children’s academic and social/behavioural progress after controlling for the influence of child, family and home learning environment.
- Classroom factors, (particularly overall Teaching quality and Child positivity) and Parental support have an important influence on children’s progress in Reading between 5-10. School-level factors were relatively less important for Reading.
- Progress in Mathematics, however, is relatively equally influenced by factors at classroom-level and school-level (Quality of school leadership, School communication with parents, Use of homework and school standards).
- The influence of overall Teaching quality on Reading and Mathematics is stronger than the net influence of some background factors such as gender and family disadvantage but weaker than the influence of Early Years Home Learning Environment and mothers’ qualifications.
- The influence of primary schools upon Children’s social/behavioural developmental progress appears to operate more through school-level characteristics (such as academic ethos, Use of homework and school standards and the extent of recent school Improvement since last inspection) rather than classroom-level factors.
- It is possible to classify teachers into groups according to differences in their overall Teaching quality across a range of different dimensions of classroom behaviour and practice.
- Overall Teaching quality is a significant predictor of cognitive progress for children across the ages 5-10. Children in schools where overall Teaching quality was observed to be High do significantly better in both Reading and Mathematics than those attending schools where Year 5 quality was observed to be Low.
- The overall quality of teaching as measured by the instruments had a consistent influence on children’s academic progress but not on children’s social/behavioural development.