Does providing 5-6 year olds with daily 15 minute music sessions impact on their reading attainment?

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Academic attainment; Not Applicable

• Registration Number: ISRCTN14035536
• Lead Sponsor: The Behavioural Insights Team

Brief Summary

2021 Funder report results in https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/First_Thing_Music_Evaluation_Report_Final.pdf (added 13/09/2021)

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Results First Posted: 1900-01-01
• Study Start: 2018-07-24
• Study Completion: 2019-12-31
• Last Update Posted: 20 June 2023

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 3004

Inclusion Criteria

1. Located in North East England
2. Discussed participation with First Thing Music and signed an MoU detailing the conditions of participation (opt-out process, pupil data provision and endline assessment, participation in IPE activities, etc.).

If there is significant interest from localised areas not in the North East (e.g. Sheffield), music practitioners may be recruited to these areas as well. This will typically require at least 10 schools in a localised area to be recruited in the study.
Strong preference will also be given to two-form entry schools. If the project team are unable to recruit the required number of two-form schools, other schools (e.g. single and three-form entry) will be considered after discussions with the evaluation team and the EEF.
Schools with an average or above average share (14.1%) of Free School Meal (FSM) children will receive priority in recruitment.
As this trial will be randomised at the class-level, there are no pupil-level eligibility requirements.

Exclusion Criteria

N/A

Study & Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<br> The following will be assessed at the end of the intervention period - the end of the 2019 school year:<br> 1. Reading ability (phonics, literal comprehension and reading for meaning) assessed using the Progress in Reading Assessment (PIRA)<br> 2. Oral narrative skills (information content, sentence length, grammatical usage and independence), assessed using the Renfrew Bus Story test<br><br> To account for baseline variation in attainment, the child's Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) will be used.<br>

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<br> The following will be assessed at the end of the intervention period - the end of the 2019 school year:<br> 1. Social skills, assessed using the Social Skills scale of the Social Skills Improvement System (SSiS). This is assessed across the following subscales:<br> 1.1. Communication<br> 1.2. Cooperation<br> 1.3. Assertion<br> 1.4. Responsibility<br> 1.5. Responsibility<br> 1.6. Empathy<br> 1.7. Engagement<br> 1.8. Self-control<br> 2. Self-perception of ability to generate and use ideas in their school work, assessed using an adapted version of the ideation sub-measure of the writing self-efficacy measure, with significant simplification to make it age-group appropriate<br><br> To account for baseline variation in attainment, the child's Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) will be used.<br>