EYFS Assessment
Assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children’s progress, understand their needs, and to plan activities and support.
"Ongoing assessment (also known as formative assessment) is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners knowing children’s level of achievement and interests, and then shaping teaching and learning experiences for each child reflecting that knowledge. In their interactions with children, practitioners should respond to their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress and observations that parents and carers share". (EYFS Statutory Framework Section 2)
Assessment should not take practitioners away from interacting and working directly with children, or require excessive paperwork. Practitioners should use their knowledge of the child and their professional judgement to assess whether a child is working at the expected level of development. Parents and/or carers, and any other relevant professionals should be kept up to date with children’s development and progress.
The Statutory Assessments in the EYFS comprise of:
The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) Handbook 2024 (updated October 2023) details the reporting aspects for any rising 5 children currently in settings or schools.
The changes from the previous version are detailed here.
To support practitioners with assessment, the Early Years Team have put together a programme of termly Agreement Trialling sessions.
These sessions provide practitioners with an opportunity to talk about children’s development with their peers, discuss what ‘on-track’ looks like and what support may help those children with Health Needs SLCN assessment and additional support. Sessions are split into assessment support for 3-4 year olds and assessment support for 4-5 year olds and details of upcoming sessions can be found on our CPD pages.
