What is the goal of this study?

We aim to recruit 500 children during Reception and Year 1 for our study, and conduct individual child sessions (administered via Zoom) and interviews/questionnaires with teachers and (if possible) filmed peer play in order to:

(a) gather a rich picture of changes over time in children’s social relationships, cognitive skills and well-being, and
(b) investigate similarities and contrasts in how children, parents and teachers view the transition to school.

We hope that this work will prove valuable in informing future Early Years education policies.

Who is responsible for this study?

Professor Claire Hughes at the University of Cambridge Centre for Family Research is leading the study in partnership with Cambridgeshire PSHE, the University of Birmingham School of Psychology and the LonDownS Consortium. The study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Award ES/T016175).

Other study Principal Investigators include Dr Hana D’Souza at the University of Cambridge Department of Psychology, Dr Rory Devine at the University of Birmingham School of Psychology and Dr Elian Fink at the University of Sussex School of Psychology.

How does the study address potential ethical concerns?

This study has been reviewed by the University of Cambridge Psychology Ethics Committee. All children will be told that it is their choice to take part and that they can return to their class whenever they wish. We do not anticipate any distress, but children who appear tired will be offered short breaks.

In accordance with General Data Protection Regulation guidelines and the Data Protection act, all survey and task data will be kept fully anonymous. Zoom is GDPR compliant (click here) and the recordings have end-to-end encryption options (click here). The video-footage will be stored securely using the University Secure System, and only the University System Administrator and the research team will have access to the data. Please follow this link for general information about how the University uses personal data (click here).