What is Tip by Text?

Tips by Text is a programme designed to help parents or carers develop their children’s language, literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills at home.

Tips by Text is a 9-month, digital curriculum for parents of reception pupils. Parents receive 3 text messages per week with tips and ideas for activities they can do at home with their children to improve their language, literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills. Each week messages will centre on a particular topic like letter recognition, counting or managing emotions.

A version of the curriculum tested in the US improved children's literacy skills by the equivalent of 2 additional months’ progress.

For more information, please see our school information sheet here.

We have now filled all of the spaces available in the Tips by Text trial.

How it works

We are testing the impact of Tips by Text on pupil outcomes using a randomised controlled trial (RCT). This means the curriculum will be delivered to half of the parents/carers of reception children in each participating school. These parents will be chosen at random in October 2024 so that some parents will receive the texts and other parents from the same school will not receive the text.

Between October 2024 and June 2025, parents and carers at participating schools will receive three text messages a week. The messages will be sent by The Behavioural Insights Team directly to parents and carers. Schools just need to continue teaching as normal during this time!

What are the benefits for my school?

  • There is no cost to participating schools.

  • Reception parents will receive three text messages each week designed to help them support their children's development at home. The full curriculum will be made available to all participating schools at the end of the trial.

  • Potential improvements in pupil’s language, literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills.

  • The opportunity for your school to work with the EEF to build groundbreaking evidence on what works to improve educational outcomes for all children.

We have now filled all of the spaces available in the Tips by Text trial.