Plowden (1967)

Notes on the text

Volume 2

Preliminary pages Foreword and Contents
Appendix 1 Teachers' questionnaire
Appendix 2 Health of school children

The 1964 National Survey:

Appendix 3 1964 National Survey
Appendix 4 Regression analyses
Appendix 5 Data from the schools
Appendix 6 Infant starters
Appendix 7 Standards of reading of 11 year olds
Annexes to the National Survey

Appendix 8 Social services and primary education
Appendix 9 The Manchester Survey
Appendix 10 National Child Development Study
Appendix 11 School organisation and effects of streaming
Appendix 12 Gypsies and education
Appendix 13 Management of primary schools
Appendix 14 Variation in LEA provision

Volume 1

Report (full text)

Articles

about Plowden

The Plowden Report (1967)
Children and their Primary Schools

A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England)

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Volume 2 Appendix 6
The 1964 National Survey: the infant starters
[pages 243 - 259]

1. A special sample was drawn from children who had started school, at the beginning of the term during which interviewing was carried out, in schools already selected for the main sample.

Sources of data

2. There were three sources of data about these children in addition to the general school information (from Schedules A, C and Staffing Form) which was available from the main sample. The child's teacher was asked to complete a special Schedule (D) which replaced, for the children in this sample, the main survey Schedule B. Questions were concerned with the arrangements made by the school for the new entrants, and with the child's reactions to school, as seen by the teacher. The parent of the child (generally the mother) was interviewed, using the same Social Survey Interview Schedule as for the main survey, and an extra question, specifically about settling in at school, was included. The third source of information was a medical examination and previous medical history of the child, provided by the school doctor, with information given by the child's mother, on Schedule M.

The sample

3. The numbers of children for whom these documents are available are not constant over the three sources. There were 255 complete Schedule Ds, 249 completed home interviews and 227 medical schedules. It was difficult to get children, particularly in the rural areas, to attend the school clinics for the examination. Therefore, the base totals in the tables vary considerably, according to the source of the data being analysed.

4. Fifty-two per cent of the sample were boys and 48 per cent girls, compared with 50.7 per cent and 49.3 per cent respectively in the main sample. The social class of the families of beginners at school differed from the main sample in one important respect: over two thirds (67 per cent) were classified as Class III, whereas the main sample has 59 per cent in this group, and the general population group of married males used for comparison in the Social Survey Report, had 51 per cent. This large discrepancy was balanced by two smaller differences (in the opposite direction) between the two samples in Classes II and V.

Ease of control

5. Mothers were asked if they found the child easy or difficult to control. The children in the special sample were considered less easy than those in the main sample; 63 per cent of the mothers as against 73 per cent in the main sample said their child was easy to control; 16 per cent as against 11 per cent considered their child difficult. Probably more difficulty is experienced with five year old children than with older children.

Tables 1-5:

Table 1 Social class of parents

Table 2 Age of children at entry

Table 3 Size of class on starting school

Table 4 Prior visit to school

Table 5 Prior visit to class

Full or part-time attendance on entry

6. All the sample children attended school full-time immediately (99 per cent of the main sample did so). Thirty-six per cent of mothers would have preferred their child to have attended only in the mornings or in the afternoons (23 per cent in the main sample). About two thirds of the children were under five when they first started school.

Size of class

7. Just over a quarter of the children entered a class of 30 or under; slightly fewer went into a class with more than 40 children. The rest were in classes of 31-40.

Prior visits

8. Seventy per cent of the children visited the school before they were admitted at the beginning of term, and of these 64 per cent (46 per cent of the total) visited their class.

Settling in

9. According to the teachers' assessments, about a quarter of the children showed some signs of distress at leaving their mothers when they came to school. Distress lasted for under a week in 50 per cent of these cases. About 20 per cent of the group, five per cent of the total, were distressed for a month or more.

10. The mother was asked also how the child settled in his first term at infants' school. On the whole, they were satisfied with the way the teacher helped the child to settle; only eight per cent had any complaints or worries.

11. Mothers were asked whether children showed any worry or disturbance over school. Twenty-seven per cent were disturbed in some way; the main reasons were worry or upset by other children and dislike of certain aspects of school life. A few mentioned that their child disliked leaving them on going into the school. In actual numbers, only half as many mothers as teachers thought that children had shown dislike of school for a month or more. It must be remembered that the numbers involved are small. The difference may be a product of the form of question; the mother may have forgotten an earlier disturbance which had gone by the time of interview; alternatively, the child concealed disturbance from the mother and it was apparent only when he was separated from her.

12. Questions concerning the behaviour and development of the child, as assessed by the teacher, were analysed according to the sex and age of the child starting school. The age groups were five and over, and under five. Conclusions can be tentative only, as the sample groups are small.

13. Table 6 shows that there was practically no difference between the proportions of boys and girls who showed distress at leaving their mother when they first came to school. Older boys were more likely to be distressed than the younger boys, whereas younger girls were more likely to be so. Boys may have been more inclined to conceal distress from their mothers.

Table 6 Distress at leaving mother (boys and girls)

14. Within the group of children showing distress at leaving their mothers, 30 were distressed for a week or longer. Of these children, seven did not attend for a medical examination. These are one quarter of all those who did not attend for medical examinations, whereas the whole group of distressed children are only one eighth of the total sample. There were therefore medical data for only 23 of these children, a very small group indeed. It is however of some interest that it included a higher proportion of early deliveries, of children weighing less than 5 Ib. 8 oz. [2.5kg] and of non-normal deliveries than the rest of the sample. According to mothers, the following behavioural characteristics were more typical of the distressed group than others:

Child making little or no attempt to mix with other children, child often disobedient, child often worried, worries about many things, and child fussy or over particular. As might be expected, more mothers of these children also reported crying on arrival at school and refusal to go into school. The proportions were nevertheless very low. A larger proportion of these children also showed some form of feeding difficulty, generally described as being 'picky' or 'fussy'. These children were slightly behind the others in doing up buttons, and much more so at manipulating shoe laces.

Tiredness

15. The child's tiredness at the end of the afternoon was also assessed on a three point scale. Over half the children showed no signs of tiredness, and only four per cent of the total were markedly tired. Table 7 shows the categories used, and the distribution. Girls were more likely to have shown no signs of tiredness (61 per cent as against 48 per cent for boys). The older boys and the younger girls again appeared to be the more vulnerable groups; 65 per cent of older boys were average or markedly tired, as against 44 per cent of the younger group: 32 per cent of older girls as against 42.5 per cent of younger girls for the same category. From the group who started school aged five or over, the girls were more likely to show no signs of tiredness (68 per cent as against 35 per cent); there was a slight difference in the same direction for the younger group (57.5 per cent as against 55 per cent). Although boys were more often tired than girls, mothers were more likely to consider that girls needed part-time school (40 per cent preferred part-time attendance for girls, as against 32 per cent for boys).

Table 7 Children's fatigue

The difference is marked in the older age group, 46 per cent for part-time for girls and 29 per cent for boys. (See Table 8.)

Table 8 Preference for part-time or full-time school on entry

Need of adult support

16. Teachers assessed the child's need for support of an adult (Table 9). Boys were slightly more likely to need some support than girls. The difference was particularly marked in the older age group, where well over twice as many boys as girls were assessed as having a marked need for adult support (26 per cent against 10 per cent).

Table 9 Need of adult support (boys and girls)

Children's power of expression

17. Table 10 shows teacher's estimates of the child's power of expressing himself in words. Overall, girls were more advanced than boys (41 per cent were 'good', against 30 per cent); within the older age group, nearly twice as many girls as boys were assessed as 'good' (46 per cent to 24 per cent); the difference between those within the group assessed as 'poor' was only five per cent however; 12 per cent girls, 17 per cent boys.

Table 10 Power of verbal expression (boys and girls)

Children's development and size of class

18. The possible relationship between size of class, the child's development and the parents' contacts with the school was examined. As Table 11 shows, the younger children were more likely to enter classes with less than 31 children. This may be a result of deliberate policy, or may more likely be a result of sample distribution.

Table 11 Size of class related to age of children

19. Table 12 shows the distribution of teacher's estimates of the child's need for the support of an adult, according to the size of class the child is in. There were no clear differences between the groups except that a lower proportion of children in the classes of 30 and under showed a marked need for adult support (11 per cent as against 16 per cent and 15 per cent).

Table 12 Size of class related to need for adult support

Table 13 Contact between parent and head related to size of class

Table 14 Contact between parent and class teacher related to size of class

20. Tables 13 and 14 analyse the mother's contacts with the head and the child's class teacher, according to the size of class. Unexpectedly, mothers of children in the smaller classes were less likely to have talked to the head before, or when, the child started school, and were less likely to have talked with the child's class teacher since. The most surprising figure is in Table 14; 82 per cent of mothers with children in classes of over 40 had talked with the child's class teacher since the child started school, compared with 66 per cent and 69 per cent for the small and medium classes respectively.

21. The explanation of these figures probably lies in the socio-economic circumstances of schools of different sizes, and in the organisation of the schools. Large classes tend to be in large schools in residential areas where parents are anxious to make contact with the schools. Many of the smaller classes must have been in rural schools where heads were in charge of a class, and some were in contact with parents out of school.

Introduction to school

22. Various factors concerning the child's introduction to school were examined. The mother might have known something about the school already, and the child might have visited the school and perhaps his class before starting. As Table 15 shows, when a child had not visited school before starting, his mother was slightly more likely to know something about the school. This factor apparently had no relation to visiting the class or not. (Table 16.) The questions were so phrased, however, that previous knowledge about the school did not necessarily apply to the child in the sample, whereas visiting school and class did apply to him.

Table 15 Parents' knowledge related to child's visit to school before entry

Table 16 Parents' knowledge related to child's visit to class before entry

Table 17 Mothers' contact with teacher after entry related to visits before entry

23. If the child had visited his class before starting, the mother was rather more likely to have talked to the class teacher since then. As Table 17 shows, 74 per cent of mothers renewed the contact, while 69 per cent of those whose children had not visited the class talked to the teacher.

Table 18 Children's distress related to prior visits

24. Finally an analysis was made to see if contacts with the school and the mother's contacts with the head and class teachers had any relation to distress shown by the child when he started school. The proportion showing distress amongst those children who had visited was six per cent higher than among those who had not visited the school (27 per cent to 21 per cent). Table 19 shows no difference in the proportions showing distress according to whether parents had talked to heads when children started school.

Table 19 Children's distress related to parent and head teacher contacts

25. A higher percentage of mothers of children showing distress on entering school talked to class teachers than of mothers of children showing no distress (30 per cent compared with 16 per cent where mother had not talked to the teacher (Table 20)). It seems probable that children who have lived happily with their mothers, as well as anxious children, may show distress on entering school, and that prior contact with school may not be substantial enough to alleviate distress.

Table 20 Children's distress related to parent's contact with class teacher

Children's development and family relationships

26. It has often been suggested that a child's development at school and in society depends on his family relationships. Mothers were asked how often they were able to do things with their child in the evenings after school, and this was analysed in relation to the child's power of expressing himself in words. There appeared to be no difference between children whose mothers were free most evenings or only occasionally (Table 21). Unfortunately the group of mothers who did not manage to play with their children is too small for reliable analysis. The teachers' estimates of the child's need for adult support were examined with respect to the children's contacts with their mothers. For both sexes, it seemed that the children whose mothers were available only on occasional evenings were less likely to have need of adult support (Table 22). The groups, however, are small.

Table 21 Children's expression related to play with mother

Table 22 Need for support related to play with mother

Family discipline

27. Another parental attitude examined was that of the father to family discipline. The mother was asked about her husband's attitude to the children, whether he tended to strictness, in some things at least, or whether he was lenient. Seventy-four per cent of the boys came from families with fathers tending to strictness as compared with 58 per cent of the girls. The proportions of boys and girls with a marked need for adult support were higher in the groups with lenient fathers than in the groups with strict fathers. Amongst boys, leniency also produced a higher proportion with little need for adult support; for girls there was a slight difference in the opposite direction.

Table 23 Need for support related to family discipline

Children's behaviour

28. During the medical examination mothers were asked about the behaviour of the child. They were asked, for example, whether the statement - 'child makes little or no attempt to mix with other children' - applied at all to their own child. As Table 24 shows, this statement was slightly more likely to apply to children whose fathers were rated as lenient.

29. Estimates of the child's behaviour made by his mother and teacher were examined together. As the numbers were so small, the categories which indicated that the child tended not to mix with other children were combined. As Table 25 shows, a tendency not to mix with other children did not necessarily go with an estimate of poor cooperation.

Table 24 Sociability related to family discipline

Table 25 Cooperation related to sociability

30. Mothers may have been influenced in their preferences for full or part-time attendance at school by their ease or difficulty in controlling children. As Table 26 shows, if a child was considered difficult to control, the mother was more likely to think full-time attendance preferable (77.5 per cent) than if he was easy (62 per cent).

31. More mothers preferred boys than girls to attend full-time. If the boy was difficult to control, a slightly higher proportion of mothers preferred full-time attendance than if the boy was easy to control (71 per cent to 68 per cent. This difference was much more marked for girls, 84 per cent compared with 57 per cent.) It is interesting that if the mother assessed the child as in some ways difficult, in some ways easy to control, the proportion preferring part-time attendance was higher than for the other two categories. This was particularly noticeable amongst the girls (Table 27).

32. Only 21 per cent of mothers in the special infant starters' sample were working. A number of factors were analysed to see if working mothers held different opinions from non-working mothers or treated their children differently. Overall, working mothers were more likely to prefer part-time attendance at school (42 per cent compared with 35 per cent of non-working mothers). As Table 28 shows, the non-working mothers much preferred full-time school for boys, while slightly more working mothers preferred it for girls.

Table 26 Parents' estimates of value of full and part-time attendance related to ease of control (both sexes)

Table 27 Parents' estimates of value of full and part-time attendance related to ease of control (boys and girls)

Table 28 Estimates of value of full or part-time attendance by working and non-working mothers (boys and girls)

Table 29 Amount working and non-working mothers play with child

33. A smaller proportion of working than of non-working mothers were free to do things with their children in the evenings. As Table 29 shows, however, even in this group nearly two thirds managed to have some time free most evenings and another quarter were free on occasional evenings. Table 30 shows that although there is no difference according to whether the mother works in the proportions of children estimated by their teachers as having a poor power of expression in words, those with working mothers are more likely to be assessed as average, and less likely to be rated good (56 per cent to 47 per cent, and 30 per cent to 39 per cent respectively).

Table 30 Powers of expression of children of working and non-working mothers

Table 31 Distress at starting school of children of working and non-working mothers

34. The distributions in Table 31 indicate that the children of working mothers were less likely to show distress at leaving them to start school. This presumably could be expected if the child is already used to separation. A similar trend is found in Table 32. A slightly higher proportion of children with working mothers had little need of adult support (30 per cent as against 25 per cent). This was more marked in the case of boys.

Table 32 Need for support of children of working and non-working mothers

Medical data

35. Full medical data were available for 227 children (except for the few adopted children about whom early details were not known). 74 per cent were full term deliveries, 12 per cent were early (ranging from one to eight weeks) and 10 per cent late from one to four weeks. The remainder did not answer the questions. There were 14 per cent non-normal deliveries, mainly instrumental. Six per cent of children were 5 Ib. 8 oz. [2.5kg] or under at birth. Twenty-three per cent had been admitted to hospital; one per cent had been in a residential nursery, and one child was in the care of the local authority. Fourteen per cent of children had some kind of feeding difficulty and 10 per cent had sleeping difficulties; only two per cent had a severe form of either. The majority of children, at least two thirds in each case, had never complained of such physical disturbances as headache, stomach ache, feeling sick, vomiting, nor had wet themselves during day or night for the previous year. Twelve per cent had had stomach ache and 10 per cent had wet their beds at least once a month.

36. The children did not on the whole show many behavioural disturbances (for complete list of categories see Q.25 A-M on Schedule M). Nearly 50 per cent had temper tantrums 'at least somewhat', and nearly 50 per cent were said to tend to do things on their own. These large proportions may be due to misinterpretation of the questions. About a third of the sample, in each case, tended to be fussy, to worry about things, to be fearful of new things, to be disobedient, and to fight with other children. Other disturbances were not found so frequently; the ones least frequently reported by mothers were crying on arrival at school and refusal to go into school. Nearly all children could pick up a pin easily; 86 per cent could do up buttons easily and 74 per cent could dress themselves. Sixty-two per cent could not do up shoe laces and only 15 per cent could do this easily. Mothers may have found this question difficult to answer; five per cent of children were said to wear buckled shoes and there may have been others.