Peeple is a UK based charity focused on narrowing the attainment gap by supporting parents and carers to encourage learning through day-to-day activities at home. The evidence-based Peep Learning Together Programme, developed by Peeple, values what it is that parents and carers do in the everyday. It reinforces how vital the primary carers’ job is in influencing a child’s outcomes and how important a child’s early years experiences are, not just for the health and wellbeing of the child in the here and now, but the impact for society into the future.

"The Peep Learning Together Programme aims to do two things which we know from research makes a difference to children’s outcomes. Those two things are the quality of relationships and the quality of the home learning environment,” said Dr Sally Smith from Oxford England.

Peep learning Together Programme aims to celebrate and enhance the enriching learning opportunities already available around us and between us, at home and in our local communities.

“It’s just about taking those everyday opportunities, telling stories, having lots of conversation, lots of listening, songs and rhymes. These are things that we know make a difference.”

For many years, Dr Sally Smith was a researcher in the social sciences. After a break rearing her three children, she worked as a Research Officer in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. She worked on the Birth to School Study, a six-year evaluation of the Peep Learning Together Programme. Sally went to work for Peeple in 2007, becoming CEO in 2012.

“I now see it [Peep] as absolutely fundamental, not just providing support for families in the first years when children arrive, which is very important on all sorts of levels, but absolutely key in the long term.”

“We know that it is during the early years that gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged appear and if we are going to do anything about that, other than working remedially when something has gone wrong, it’s got to be in the early years and parents are the people that children spend most of their time with. Schools and other settings are important, but working with parents is vitally important.”

The central focus of the Peep Learning Together Programme is about empowering parents and building strong relationships, based on respect and commonality.  

“We know from research that parents who are confident in their role as parents, their children tend to do better regardless of their background. Parents need to see that their role can make a difference.”

Training over 1000 practitioners a year, Peeple aims to create greater opportunities for families, and for those families to create opportunities for others.

The Peep Learning Together Programme is based on the ORIM Framework developed by Professors Peter Hannon and Cathy Nutbrown at the University of Sheffield, England.  ORIM stands for Opportunities, Recognition, Interaction and a Model and is a way of conceptualising the support that parents provide their children to learn.

“In the Peep Learning Together Programme, we share those four roles with practitioners to help them see what it is that parents are already doing, and when they see what parents are already doing they can explain to them that what they are doing is valuable. That is a really powerful way, even the first time you meet a family, to say something positive about what they are doing, to recognise and to celebrate with them.”

The Peep Learning Together Programme can be delivered in a group format. This provides the opportunity for people from all walks of life to come together with shared purpose and to share experiences.

Sally said that a Peep group is a place where barriers are often broken down and where social capital is built.

The group work allows families to build a network and form a village, which can be an integral part of building their confidence and readiness to open up and connect.

Another cornerstone of the Peep Learning Together Programme is play. Learning through play and the role of play in early childhood development is central to the programme’s efficacy.

“The experience that a child has, even before they are born, shapes the way that their brain develops. Although it is not deterministic, we know that having more positive experiences, compared to having less positive experiences, make it easier for children to do better.”

“We know that by the time children are 18 months old there is already a six month gap in language between the most advantaged children and the least advantaged children and language itself is a strong predictor of later academic outcomes.”

Over the years Sally has observed the power of play, aiding development not only of the brain and body, but also of a child’s wellbeing and academic successes.

“Play is children’s work, it’s how they learn.”

Sally said that research makes it clear that early social interactions and early years experiences impact a child’s physical, emotional, social and brain development. She firmly believes that investing in early years will make a difference to individual children and ultimately to society as a whole.

“I think the early years sector in England is woefully underfunded – which makes no sense as it has the potential to delivery the greatest return on investment. It is a challenge because the full benefits of investment are seen in the long-term – and certainly beyond the lifetime of any single parliament at Westminster.”

The Peep Learning Together Programme is well underway in the UK, providing a low cost way of supporting parents and carers. Sally has made a few trips out to Melbourne and is working alongside Playgroup Victoria facilitators to embed the Programme within the playgroup model.

Playgroup Victoria is the only licence holder of the Peep Learning Together Programme in Australia. Together with the Peep team, they strive to uphold the core Peep Principles, among them, the belief that relationships are at the heart of learning.

Click here to learn more about The PEEP Learning Together Programme.

View the Peeple Website here. Connect with Peeple on Facebook, Twitter and Instragram. 

Article by Sinead Halliday