PEEP

Peers Early Education Partnership (PEEP)

The ‘Peers Early Education Partnership' was set up in 1995 in a disadvantaged area in Oxford containing 2000 children under five years. It is an early learning intervention which works with parents and children from birth to five with the aim of increasing parent/carers participation in their children’s early development and learning, through supporting their role as first educators. The PEEP programme also aims to improve children’s development in language, early literacy, self-esteem, disposition to learn, general recognition and numeracy, and to impact positively on the community in which it is based.

PEEP principles and materials have become widely disseminated throughout the UK and are used by a growing number of individuals and organisations (including Sure Start local programmes and other early years providers).

The PEEP website (www.peep.org.uk) provides further information about the PEEP programme and materials.

Formal Evaluation

Birth to School Study

From 1998 to 2004, PEEP was the subject of a long-term evaluation, the Birth to School Study (BTSS). The main aim of the BTSS was to investigate the effects of PEEP on the children and families from the community it served. Embedded within this aim were dual objectives: to determine if the intervention had an effect within the community as a whole and simultaneously, to determine whether it had an effect on the particular families who participated in the PEEP weekly sessions. The foci of these objectives were parental outcomes related to aspects of parent-child relationships, quality of the care-giving environment and maternal mental health and child outcomes related to cognitive and socio-emotional development. The six year span of the study afforded the opportunity to measure effects year by year from ages 1 to 5, and to measure the rates of progress of each group of children between the different points in time.

Other studies include:

The Effects of the Peers Early Education Partnership (PEEP) on Children’s Developmental Progress.
Enabling Parents: The Role of PEEP in Supporting Parents as Adult Learners.

Useful Links: