Developed with support from Birmingham, Oxfordshire and North Yorkshire Councils, this DfE funded project addresses the policy question of how we might enhance the educational achievement of young, white working boys (identified as boys growing up in low income households) in order to:

• close the gap in their attainment on entry to compulsory schooling;

• improve access to the free early education offer;

• and enable greater social mobility.

We have worked with a carefully selected cohort of high-achieving, young, white working class boys (achieving an EYFS profile score above 38, placing them in the top 15% nationally), their families and early education settings, from three regionally selected urban, rural and coastal communities.

We aimed to identify home and setting behaviours and interactions that can enable underachieving, less advantaged, young, white working class boys to experience more positive home learning experiences, access a quality free early education place and improve their attainment.

As part of the project, we have also created an online resource to assist with the wider dissemination of findings and training purposes.

The online resource is split into three sections:

• 5 x Parent and Practitioner Information Sheets which consist of parenting and/or practice tips, main research findings and action points

• 21 x Child and Family Case Studies focusing on the enabling conditions for a high achieving white working class boy. The case studies reveal the complexity of family circumstances, highlight the dynamic nature of the inter-relationships between those elements of success, and how academic and parenting resilience is achieved in real lives.

• A set of Parent Video Blogs which describe parenting practices and partnership with early years practitioners of the parents that took part in the study.