The impact of teacher focused sessions with pre-school children on progression

Does the input of teacher focused sessions with pre-school children have an impact on their progression in relation to literacy, numeracy and developmental milestones?

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Author 
Linsey Grant

Abstract

This action research project has focused on exploring the benefit of teacher-led sessions with pre-school children and if/how it impacts on progression in relation to early literacy, numeracy and developmental milestones. The target of the action research project was to work with pre-school children and share activities with their parents to actively involve parents in their child’s education journey. The subjects of this action research project have been various pre-school children in my nursery.

The stages of this project have been the following:

• Baseline assessments in August, assessing where the children are at and identifying next steps.
• Weekly sessions with nursery teacher focusing on literacy, numeracy and developmental milestones.
• Monthly meetings with keyworkers offered to discuss children’s progression and ideas areas of development.
• Monitoring records regularly updated and tracked to observe progression.
• Survey shared with parents in relation to what they would like sessions on.
• Sharing of videos and handouts with parents focusing on early literacy, numeracy and developmental milestones.
• Survey shared to gather feedback from sessions.
• End of year assessments completed for literacy and numeracy.

The survey showed that parents felt that videos/handouts would be of benefit, and in particular early reading, early writing, numerical awareness and attention. The parents’ response to the first questionnaire determined the focus for the video sessions and handouts shared with the parents from March to June.

End of term literacy assessments were carried out in June 2021 and these assessments highlighted significant progress in relation to early literacy. Almost all the pre-school children coming into Primary 1 have achieved at least criteria 1-7 upon entry to Primary 1.

How can I use this resource?

This report offers insight into the implementation of teacher focused sessions for supporting literacy and numeracy in pre-school settings. Practitioners will find the methods and research strategy effective for shaping their own investigations into this topic, and draw on the author’s initial conclusions to develop their own interventions.