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CHAPTER 10 EXPERIENCES OF PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

10.1 Introduction

Since 2002, the Scottish Government has provided free part-time pre-school early education places for 3- and 4-year-old children in Scotland. ³⁰ Local Education Authorities provide pre-school places in nursery classes and schools, as well as through partner settings such as playgroups and private nurseries. They are obliged to offer each child 412.5 hours of pre-school education per year (often delivered as five 2.5 hour sessions per week). These sessions follow a national Curriculum Framework for Children aged 3 to 5 (Learning Teaching Scotland, 1999), which focuses on activities to promote children's emotional, personal and social development, their communication and language, knowledge and understanding of the world, expressive and aesthetic development and physical development and movement.

Children in the GUS child cohort were aged 46.5 months (just under 4) at sweep 2. They were thus all eligible to attend one of these free pre-school education places. The sweep 2 questionnaire included a range of questions designed to explore children's and parents' experiences of pre-school education, covering:

• whether they have taken up or plan to take up their pre-school place
• what type of pre-school provision they attend
• when they started pre-school
• why parents decided to enrol the child in their pre-school place
• whether or not they sought any information or advice before enrolling them (and where from)
• whether they felt they, or their child, needed support adjusting to pre-school
• what type of support they received and whether this was adequate
• perceptions of their child's feelings about pre-school in the early months of attending, and
• perceptions of how 'ready' their child was to start their pre-school place.

10.1.1 Types of analysis

The tables in this chapter present the following main types of analysis:

• Analysis of the answers of main respondents by factors that might help explain these answers (for example, by the type of area they live in or whether they work full- or part-time).
• Comparisons of the responses of main respondents with the answers given by their partners, specifically for questions which ask for parents' views of their child's 'readiness' for pre-school. ³¹

10.2 Overview of pre-school attendance

The vast majority (94%) of our child cohort were attending a pre-school place at the time of their GUS sweep 2 interview. Of the 6% who were not, eight out of ten (79%) were planning on starting a pre-school place some time in the next year.

10.2.1 Type of pre-school place attended

The most commonly attended pre-school place was a nursery class or department attached to a primary school (attended by 53% of those in a pre-school place aged 46.5 months), followed by separate nursery schools (35%). Overall, just 5% attended playgroups and 7% day nurseries. However, use of playgroups was higher in small remote towns and remote rural areas (19% and 12% respectively). Use of separate nursery schools was highest in large urban areas (46%) and lowest in small remote towns (16%) and remote rural areas (15%), reflecting the different balance of early years providers in different areas of Scotland.

Table 10.1 Type of pre-school attended by area urban-rural classification

Although the Scottish Government provides funding for all children aged 3 and 4 to attend a free early-education place, local authorities have flexibility about the providers they use to deliver this. In some cases, they may use a mixture of local authority nurseries, playgroups and nursery classes attached to primary schools, and privately-run nurseries to ensure that sufficient places are available. Using data from the childcare section of the GUS questionnaire, it is possible to estimate the proportion of children whose pre-school places are provided by private and state providers. Overall, 85% of children were attending pre-school places at local authority providers, compared with 15% whose early education was provided by a private nursery or playgroup (Table 10.2).

Use of private pre-school providers was more common in large urban areas (20%, compared with 8% in remote rural areas Table 10.2). It was also more common in more affluent areas and among more affluent families - for example, 24% of those living in the least deprived areas of Scotland compared with 11% in the most deprived ³² used private pre-school providers. Similarly, 29% of children in families in the top income quartile were receiving their pre-school places through private providers, compared with just 8% of children in families in the lowest income group. This may suggest that more affluent parents whose child attends a private nursery/playgroup for childcare are perhaps more likely (where it is an option) to keep them with that provider for their free pre-school education place. This is also suggested by the fact that 83% of those whose pre-school place was provided by a private provider had been attending a private nursery or playgroup for childcare at sweep 1. However, this finding may also suggest that pre-school education via a private provider is more readily available in more affluent areas and that these parents have greater choice of where to place their child.

Table 10.2 Whether use state or private pre-school provider by area urban/rural classification

10.2.2 Age at starting pre-school

Children in Scotland become eligible for free pre-school places when they are between 36 and 42 months old (depending on when their birthdays fall ³³). The vast majority of children in the GUS sample (89%) had started their pre-school place by the time they were 42 months old, with just 10% starting when they were 43 months or older.

Although parents were asked to think about only those places their child attended since their 3rd birthday, in many cases children may take up their free early education place at the same nursery or playgroup they were already attending for childcare. This is reflected in the fact that around a fifth (21%) say their child started their place when they were aged under 3 years. For these parents, therefore, the start of Government-funded provision may be less transparent than for those who changed provider or who were not previously using formal childcare.

10.3 Reasons for enrolling in pre-school

Parents were asked about their main reasons for enrolling their child with their pre-school provider. The most common reason given for enrolling children with their pre-school provider was so that they can socialise or make friends with other children, mentioned by 58% of parents with a child at pre-school (Table 10.3). This was followed by seeing pre-school as preparation for or continuation into primary school (30%) and as beneficial in terms of educational development (24%). Around one in ten (12%) respondents said they enrolled their child in a nursery or playgroup place to allow themselves to work or study. Respondents in managerial and professional occupations were more likely than those in routine and semi-routine occupations to mention this as a reason for enrolling their child (16% compared with 8%).

Again, although these questions were prefaced with a request for respondents to think only about those pre-school places their child has attended since their third birthday, it is worth bearing in mind that some children may have received their free place at the same nursery or playgroup they were previously attending for childcare. Thus parents may be reflecting on their reasons for initially enrolling them with that provider for childcare in addition to (or instead of) their reasons for enrolling them with that provider for early education.

Table 10.3 Main reasons for enrolling child in pre-school

10.4 Advice and support needs

10.4.1 Advice before enrolling

Six out of ten parents sought some sort of advice or support before enrolling their child in their pre-school place, most commonly from pre-school staff (32%) or friends (31% - Table 10.4). Less commonly used formal sources of advice about pre-school included other professionals, such as GPs, health visitors or others (11%), local authority education department staff (7%), other childcarers ( e.g. childminders, 5%) and social workers or community workers (1%).

Table 10.4 Sources of advice and information looked for before enrolling child in pre-school

The biggest predictor of whether or not a parent sought advice before enrolling their child in pre-school was whether or not the child was their first born - 75% of respondents for whom the sample child is their first born had sought such advice, compared with 46% of those with older children. Parents whose child was their first born were also more likely to have sought advice from formal sources ³⁴ (54% compared with 35%).

Those who were not getting any regular help with childcare at the time of their sweep 1 GUS interview were less likely than those who were using childcare to have sought any advice about their child's pre-school place (53%, compared with 63% of those who had been getting help with childcare at sweep 1). While this may seem surprising (given that this group are likely to be less familiar with formal early education and childcare provision), it is at least in part explained by the strong relationship of both advice seeking and use of childcare with education. Those with no qualifications were less likely to have been receiving any help with childcare at sweep 1. ³⁵ They were also less likely than those with higher level qualifications to have sought any advice before deciding to enrol their child in pre-school (just 52% of those with no qualifications had sought any such advice, compared to 65% of those qualified to degree level). Thus education appears to be a strong predictor of propensity to seek advice before enrolling children in pre-school.

10.4.2 Support with starting pre-school

Respondents were asked whether they felt they or their child had needed any support adjusting to pre-school when the child first started. Just 8% said they had needed such support. Of the very small proportion who said they had needed it, the vast majority (90%) felt they and their child had received enough support at the time.

There was relatively little variation between families with different types of characteristics in terms of their expressed support needs, although those who only used informal childcare at sweep 1 were slightly more likely than those who had used either formal provision or a combination of formal and informal to say they or their child had needed support adjusting to pre-school (10%, compared with 6% and 7% respectively).

The most common source of support for parents and children was pre-school staff themselves - 77% of those who said they needed support had received it from pre-school staff (Table 10.5).

Table 10.5 Sources of support with move to pre-school

Note: Respondents could choose more than one answer and so percentages don't add up to 100.

10.5 Feelings about pre-school in the first 2 months

Respondents were asked how frequently their child expressed views that might suggest difficulties with pre-school during their first two months of attendance (again, they were asked to think only about their main pre-school place since their 3rd birthday). Attending pre-school appears to be a positive experience for most 3 year olds, with 81% of respondents saying their child said good things about it more than once a week and 81% that they looked forward to going (Table 10.6). Overall, only a relatively small group of parents reported that their child said things on a regular basis that might indicate difficulties. For example, just 17% said their child had complained about their pre-school place more than once a week, while 70% said they had not complained at all.

However, parents of boys were slightly more likely than parents of girls to mention that their child had complained about their pre-school place (32% compared with 25%) or expressed reluctance to go (37% compared with 29%) in the first 2 months (Table 10.6). Parents who were using informal childcare only at sweep 1 were also somewhat more likely than parents of children who were in formal childcare to say their child had indicated some problems. For example, 20% of respondents who used informal care only at sweep 1 said their child had complained about their pre-school place more than once a week, compared with just 12% of those who had used formal care only. This may suggest that moving to pre-school aged 3 or 4 can be more of a challenge for those children without prior experience of formal early years settings through their childcare.

Table 10.6 Frequency of adjustment problems in first 2 months of pre-school by sex of child

10.6 Parental perceptions of children's 'readiness' for pre-school

Respondents were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with a range of statements related to how 'ready' they thought their child was for their main pre-school place attended since their third birthday. Again, the majority did not appear to have any significant concerns about their child's readiness across a range of measures. For example, 82% disagreed that they were worried their child was not independent enough to cope at pre-school, while 86% agreed that their child could mix well enough with other children to get along at pre-school (Table 10.7).

However, a substantial minority gave responses suggestive of some concerns about their child's readiness for pre-school on one or more measures. In particular, around three in ten (31%) appeared to have some concerns that their child would find being apart from them difficult, while around a third (34%) were concerned their child would be reluctant to go to pre-school. Moreover, main carers of boys were slightly (but significantly) more likely than main carers of girls to give responses indicative of concerns about their readiness on a number of measures (concern the child would find being apart from them too difficult, concern they would be reluctant to go, belief that they knew enough about taking turns and sharing, and belief they could go to the toilet on their own - Table 10.7).

Table 10.7 Agreement/disagreement with statements about 'readiness' for pre-school by sex of child

Further analysis of perceptions of readiness for pre-school was undertaken by creating a scale based on responses to the six questions reported in Table 10.7. Those who gave answers which indicate concerns about readiness were given low scores and those whose responses indicate no concerns were given high scores. Thus a low score on the readiness scale indicates that the respondent has some concerns about their child's readiness for pre-school, while a high score indicates that they have no or few concerns. Boys were more likely to have low readiness scores than girls (18.3% fall into the lowest scoring group, compared with 13.3% of girls - Table 10.8).

Table 10.8 Overall 'readiness' scores by sex

Respondents who are not working and respondents who were only using informal childcare for the child at sweep 1 were also more likely than those working full time and those with experience of using formal childcare to view their children as less 'ready' for pre-school on this scale (Table 10.9).

Table 10.9 Overall 'readiness' scores by respondent's employment status and use of informal/formal childcare at sweep 1

Of course, it is important to bear in mind that these questions only measure parents' perceptions of their child's readiness for pre-school. For example, it may be that mothers who are not working have greater anxieties than working mothers about their child's ability to cope apart from them simply because they have been apart from them less often to date, while in practice their child might be equally ready for their pre-school place. It is also important to note that, although significant, the differences reported above are not huge, and that the majority of parents express relatively few concerns about their child's readiness for pre-school. However, in terms of targeting support for parents of pre-school children it is still important to understand differences in parental perceptions of how ready their children are. Further, in future years of GUS it will be possible to use these findings on readiness for, and early difficulties with, pre-school in combination with information about children's transitions to primary (and secondary) school and their social, educational and emotional development to explore whether or not difficulties experienced at this very early stage of more formal education follow through into difficulties later on.

10.6.1 Partners views on children's 'readiness' for pre-school

Questions about perceived readiness for pre-school were also asked of the main respondents' partner in couple-households. Given that 99% of main respondents were female while 99% of partner respondents were male, comparing their responses allows us to compare the views of male and female carers. In fact, perceptions of their child's readiness for pre-school varied little between main respondents and their partners (Table 10.10). The main exception is concern about the child finding being apart from the respondent too difficult. Unsurprisingly, given that the main respondent is also usually the main carer for the child, they are more likely than their partners to express concerns that the child will find separation from them difficult (30% compared with 19%).

Table 10.10 Agreement/disagreement with statements about 'readiness' for pre-school - main respondents and partners

10.7 Key points

• The vast majority - 94% - of children aged just under 4 are attending a pre-school education place.
• Using data on pre-school attendance in combination with data about childcare, we can estimate that 85% are attending pre-school places provided via local authority nurseries, nursery classes or playgroups, compared with 15% whose pre-school places are provided via a private nursery or playgroup.
• The most common reason for enrolling children with their pre-school provider is so that they can socialise or make friends with other children (58%), followed by seeing pre-school as preparation for or continuation into primary school (30%) and as beneficial in terms of educational development (24%).
• Six in ten parents had sought some kind of advice or support before enrolling their child in pre-school, most commonly from pre-school staff themselves. Respondents were more likely to seek advice or support if the sample child was their first born. More highly educated respondents were also more likely than those without qualifications to have sought advice.
• Only a minority of parents (8%) felt they or their child had needed support adjusting to pre-school, and the majority of those who needed it felt they had received it (again, primarily from pre-school staff themselves).
• Attending pre-school appears to be a positive experience for most three year-olds, with eight in ten parents saying their child said good things about it at least once a week in their first two months.
• Only a small proportion of parents report that their child regularly said things that might indicate difficulties with their pre-school place during the first two months. However, parents of boys and respondents who were only using informal childcare at sweep 1 were slightly more likely to say their child had said things which may indicate difficulties.
• While the majority of parents had no or few concerns about their child's readiness to start a pre-school place, a substantial minority had some concerns, particularly around whether their child would find being apart from them difficult and whether the child would be reluctant to go.
• Again, parents of boys and those who had only used informal childcare at sweep 1 were more likely to have some concerns about their child's readiness for pre-school, as were parents who were not working compared with parents who were working full-time.
• Data in Chapter 5 demonstrates some of the positive impact of pre-school provision on the children in the child cohort particularly in terms of the frequency in which they partake in reading and other educational activities with pre-school staff.

10.8 Conclusion

This sweep of GUS was able to obtain data on children and parents' experience of preschool for the child cohort. Almost all eligible children were attending a preschool education place, and of the 6% who were not 79% planned to start in the next year. We may want to identify reasons for this through further follow up work. Most attended local authority provided places and those who attended private nurseries or playgroups were more likely to have been using that provider at an earlier age. Overall then, the vast majority of parents take up their child's free preschool place and the evidence suggests that parents support the objectives of this universal provision. The main reasons respondents gave for enrolling their child at preschool were so they could socialise and make friends, be prepared for primary school and because this was beneficial in terms of educational development. The transition to preschool does not seem to be problematic for most parents and their children, and the minority who needed support also felt that they had received it, usually from preschool staff themselves. This suggests that this point of contact is important, as such staff are also cited as a source of advice prior to enrolment. This might provide opportunities for associated needs assessment and interventions in a targeted way for the most vulnerable families. Parents generally reported that their children's experience was positive. Further research would have to be conducted to find out what the experience were of the minority reporting concerns. It seems that some parents had concerns about their child's readiness for a preschool place, particularly in relation to being apart from them. This was more likely to be the case for respondents with boys, those who did not work and those who used informal childcare. Future analyses would have to be conducted to explore further the importance of these different factors.

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