Quality of pre-school affects outcomes at 11

The study, the latest in the Effective Pre-School and Primary Education Project (EPPE), showed achievement in both maths and English by the age of 11 was greater where a child had attended a good quality pre-school.

However, children who went to poor quality pre-schools showed no difference in outcomes to children who had not been to pre-school at all.

And children who went to average quality pre-schools showed no difference in outcomes in English to children who had not been to pre-school.

"This is a change from previous findings, reported at age five years, which showed that all pre-school experience had positive effects, regardless of the quality," the report said.

It also found pupils from well-off backgrounds gained more from going to high quality pre-schools than children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

A child's learning environment at home was also found to be one of the most important factors in high achievement at school later on.

The EPPE project began in 1996 and followed more than 3,000 children from age three to look at the effect of nurseries, pre-schools and other early years settings on children's progress and development at primary school.