New research suggests eye-tests for reception-aged pupils might support disadvantaged pupils' reading progress

The programme, developed by the Centre for Applied Education Research (CAER), provides young children with eye tests and shares results with their family and their Early Years Setting, where staff receive training to support with the process of getting and using glasses.

682 children from 99 settings in the Bradford area participated in the trial, which ran from December 2019 until 2021, a year longer than originally planned due to Covid-related disruption. The evaluation was conducted by a team at the University of Nottingham.

In general, children who received the Glasses for Classes intervention made no additional progress in reading compared to those in control schools.