To help you make up your mind, I encourage you to read -
EYFS and Development Matters 2020 -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-adopter-schools-eyfs-framework
And further work by Julian Grenier on his 'Inside the secret garden' website -
http://juliangrenier.blogspot.com/.
Starting points
Dr Julian Grenier from Sheringham Nursery School has re-written the non-statutory Development Matters guidance for the Department for Education (DfE). The new Development Matters guidance, to be read alongside the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, 2020) is available now but should only be used by early adopter schools this academic year. Development Matters 2020 will replace the current Development Matters 2012, to be used by all settings, from September 2021.
Grenier is now spending a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook (an early adopter group) explaining the rationale behind his changes. He has talked about it in the same terms as Ofsted used for the revised Early Years Inspection handbook (2019) as an ‘evolution’ but, when you look at it and read through it, many disagree with this.
Good changes or not?
I have read positive and negative comments about the revised Development Matters document. It is 72 pages long – apparently shorter than the original – and set out very differently. Gone are the 4 columns and friendly photos – instead, we have a list of curriculum content and another list of ‘examples of how to support this’ with ‘suggestions’ and a few ‘checkpoints’ in the prime areas which Grenier has stated should not be turned into a checklist.
One of the most concerning aspects of the revised Development Matters 2020 guidance for many practitioners is that it is a curriculum – not an assessment checklist. This means that you will not be able to use it for –
- Asking parents to tick a list of starting points
- Checking off your own baseline assessment
- Progress Check at 2 assessment
- Ongoing assessment – colour coding – date tracking etc
- Parent updates on their child’s progress at home.
How will you assess?
One of the questions I am being asked – a lot – by colleagues – is how they will be able to assess children’s ongoing learning, development and progress without a developmental guide or tick list.
Grenier talks a lot about ensuring providers have a good knowledge of child development and knowing key children really well – I note that he often talks about the importance of ongoing quality professional development opportunities for staff as well, so they can use their ‘professional knowledge’ and ‘professional judgement’ (DM, 2020)
When doing your baseline assessment for a child, Grenier suggests you should think about the child’s –
- General development – the child’s current progress.
- Confidence and wellbeing - who is settling in well?
- Play and interactions - who is making friends? Who is finding playing hard?
- Communication and language - who is talking / communicating? Who can listen?
- Physical development - who moves well?
- Self-care – who is independent?
You should also get to know the child –
- What do they enjoy doing?
- What are their strengths?
- Where are they struggling?
Then, Grenier says you think about how you are going to use this information – because there is no point in assessment without using it in your curriculum, to support children’s progress.
For example, Grenier suggests you might need to –
- Observe the child more
- Put a plan in place for a child – note that the EYFS requires a Targeted Plan if you have concerns about a child at the Progress Check at 2. There is no further required written documentation in the EYFS.
- Prioritise speaking to the child’s family to find out about their home learning experiences.
- Track communication and language using, for example, an Every Child a Talker (ECAT) tracker.
- Take advice from the local area Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) - with written parental permission.
- If you work as part of a team – for example, in a nursery setting, it will be important to discuss children’s starting points (from parents) and your baseline assessment with colleagues.
Grenier has said that if a child is getting on well, you don’t need to continually assess their progress. He suggests this should free up practitioner time to focus on those children who are struggling.
Grenier also reminds us that it is important to give children time to settle in because some children take longer than others. The key person system and secure attachments will allow you to get to know each child well and help them to settle quickly. You can then prioritise those children who need extra help (he keeps saying this) and focus on any cohort issues such as concerns about specific groups of children.
What next?
When you have read parents starting points and completed your own baseline assessment of the child – or updated your assessment of their progress – you will then need to consider what adaptations (if any) you need to make to your curriculum to support children’s lockdown and other life experiences.
This is where you will be able to use Development Matters 2020 – it is a guide to the curriculum. I also note that it re-defines the characteristics of effective learning alongside the new definition in the revised / updated Early Years Foundation Stage 2020 and this will need unpicking further in the future.
Data collection
These changes were originally introduced by DfE as a result of practitioners saying they were overwhelmed by record keeping and data collection – ticking lists and writing unnecessary summary assessments for children who are clearly making good progress.
Record keeping can be useful to communicate with parents and, with less time at the door (2 metre social distancing for covid-19 and winter coming up), some parents might miss us sharing written observations ... however we need to consider the usefulness of the information we share.
What do parents want?
I spoke to our parents and they asked us to send them photos so they can see what their child is doing during the day ... they are not really interested in what we are doing next with them because they trust our judgement. I reminded them that we are required to share ideas for home learning with them by the EYFS (2017 and 2020) and they accepted this.
Apart from sending them some photos (which we do through WhatsApp during the day), they said that they only really want to know if something is going wrong – if their child doesn’t eat, sleep etc or if they have any problems with any areas of learning.
Grenier is clear that there is no need for ‘data’ – there is no need to ‘track progress’ if we know they are making good progress. Instead, he says that practitioners will easily be able to see progress (or lack of progress) by looking back at the child’s starting points. He gives the example of seeing how children have grown in their communication, or physical confidence and skills.
In a recent Tweet, Grenier stated:
‘There is no need to start to put ‘levels’ onto nursery children. The school system has sensibly moved beyond levels and that should apply to early years too.’ (Grenier, Twitter, 09.2020)
What about Ofsted?
Ofsted have stated in blogs and webinars that they are not looking for baseline or other tracking data beyond the statutory Progress Check at 2 (EYFS 2020, requirements 2.4 – 2.6). Inspectors want to talk to staff and will ask questions that draw out how well they know their key children and can talk about the progress they are making from their individual starting points.
**Note the Progress Check at 2 is currently disapplied because of coronavirus.
What about DfE?
The revised EYFS 2020 states in requirement 2.2:
Assessment should not entail prolonged breaks from interaction with children, nor require excessive paperwork. When assessing whether an individual child is at the expected level of development, practitioners should draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement and should not be required to prove this through collection of physical evidence.
What about Local Authorities?
This change of direction might cause concern for those practitioners who are currently required to submit termly prime areas tracking information to their Local Authorities for funding purposes. I advise you to speak to your Local Authority about finding a way forwards because Development Matters is not now and certainly will not be from Sept 2020 an assessment tick list and should not be altered to be used in this way.
What can we do instead?
We are not expected to record beyond the written Progress Check at 2 which is currently disapplied from the EYFS due to coronavirus. We must know each child’s progress from their starting points – which will be obvious is we spend time playing and interacting with them.
By cutting down on unnecessary record keeping, we will make more time for quality interactions, play and fun.
I look forward to delivering training on all aspects of the revised curriculum and the revised EYFS for Childcare.co.uk and private clients over the coming months, as we all prepare for the changes.
Sarah
Contact me: [email protected].