Early-start school reaps big rewards

A school that looks after children from the day they are born is making dramatic differences to students' lives, a report has found.

The study by the Telethon Kids Institute, released yesterday, shows that providing integrated support services to children from birth at Challis Early Childhood Education Centre in Armadale has improved their readiness to learn by the time they start pre-primary.

Challis, which is partly funded by Andrew Forrest's Minderoo Foundation, provides child health nurse sessions for new mothers, playgroups, access to speech and occupational therapy and a kindy.

In 2008, 46 per cent of children starting school in the Armadale area were considered "developmentally vulnerable" and at risk of falling behind their peers in more affluent areas in one or more of five domains, including language. That had fallen to 28 per cent by 2012.

"Of particular significance was the improvement in the language and cognition domain from having one in four children scoring in the lowest percentile in 2009 to only one in 10 by 2012," the report said.

"With its pre-primary school readiness program, Challis students are now outperforming their counterparts in other schools by the end of their pre-primary year."

Report author Kim Clark said the Challis model was a "relatively low-cost" way to solve problems of early disadvantage.

Minderoo Foundation chief executive Nicola Forrest said she hoped the Challis model could be expanded to children in disadvantaged areas across Australia.

"Challis' success shows that focusing on early childhood can make a significant social and economic impact that will resonate in communities for years to come," she said.

Challis principal Lee Musumeci said the report put a compelling case for what could be done to overcome economic and social disadvantage for young children.