According to a study conducted by the The Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, based at the Institute of Education, children with higher KS1 English scores experience a decrease in anti-social behavious and an increase in pro-social behaviour betweent he ages of 8 - 10. Researchers Dr Leslie Gutman and Leon Fenstein suggest this is due to a development of positive aspects associated with English proficiency:  communication skills and sociability. Pupils who were good at mathematics but struggled with English did not show improvements in behaviour. Dr Gutman cautioned: "This does not necessarily mean that we will see an improvement in children’s behaviour by enhancing key stage 1 English scores. It could be more complicated than that."

Download the full report in PDF format