Evidencing the effects of maintained nursery schools' roles in Early Years sector improvements

This TACTYC funded research set out to examine the contribution of the Maintained Nursery School to Early Years Education and Care noting, especially, its contribution to generating improvements within and across the sector. It is set within the context of other recent reports about the past, present and future of the Maintained Nursery School (Bertram and Pascal, 2019; Early Education 2014, 2015, 2018; Paull and Popov, 2019). These reports demonstrate the capacity of the Maintained Nursery School to have transformative effects on educational opportunities and outcomes for the children and families that they serve. They also alert the reader to the significant challenges maintained nurseries face due to acute structural pressures that are beyond their control. This report accords with the findings of earlier reports and makes specific recommendations based upon the empirical, largely qualitative, data generated for this particular study.