Special report: EYFS profile - A real achievement
How to use the profile to record the whole child is explained by Brenda Spencer, Tina Bruce and Marion Dowling of the Early Years Advisory Group to the DfES.
Successful assessments and judgements about young children are founded on observations of their learning and behaviour. But observation is a complex skill, which is honed with experience. It is too easy to look and not see, or listen and not hear, and so miss critical moments of children's development and learning. These moments are most evident when children are engaged in play and selecting their own activities.
Observation involves watching with perception and ways of looking informed by knowledge of child development. When practitioners plan time to observe regularly in this way, their eyes are opened to the unique characteristics and talents of each baby and young child.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) is only required to be used within the final year of the EYFS and completed for each child in the final term of that year. However, this completed document should be the summation of observational evidence of a child gleaned over a longer period of time and will reflect information from parents and other professionals. The EYFSP is the apex which at best supports reliable and comprehensive evidence about the whole child.
The EYFSP has huge potential to be used as a tool to promote high-quality practice. It can help us to recognise and understand the individual characteristics and talents of a child. This information can then be used to shape our curriculum provision and support the child to take further steps in learning on transition to Year 1.
Records should build on the time-honoured principle of early childhood traditions and capture the spirit of the EYFS.
Record-keeping systems need to be the tangible, practical expression of the philosophy, values and principles that guide a setting. As the EYFS develops, it will be important to ensure that the four themes (a Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, Development and Learning) are addressed in the record-keeping throughout the child's journey.
Records should:
- be developed in partnership with parents
- encourage children to reflect and actively participate in their own learning, using annotated photographs and written observations
- be based on observational assessment (which evaluates how the child journeys through the EYFS years) and tracks the developing learning
- help the practitioner to evaluate what the child is offered, and act in the light of this information
- inform as they are shared, leading into planning and organisation, showing progress made and next steps for the child
- be easy to review and summarise.
Records need to be flexible and to grow organically. They need to be capable of fine focus and be able to yield specific information (especially at transition points). Good records show starting points and growth points for the child's journey through the EYFS. They are easy to share with parents, practitioners in the team, across disciplines (health, extended services etc) and with the child's future teachers.
Use of the profile
The Foundation Stage Profile had a difficult birth, partly because the funding was not in place to ensure its smooth implementation or proper awareness of its potential. Despite this, many settings have developed a sophisticated understanding of how the EYFSP can be used.
They know that reliable assessment data is not gained from one-off performances, such as a quick test of a child in a one-to-one encounter with an adult on a mission. They observe children over time, most often being involved in something they have chosen to do where the practitioner can learn about a child's typical ability to apply skills and tackle something new. This is reflected upon to help the child and to improve the setting's work.
The academic future ahead of a child is concerned primarily with assessment data of reading, writing and mathematics. The physical, emotional, creative, designing child will not have the same focus again. But the fuller reflection on children afforded by the EYFSP provides a transforming agenda which improves provision and the chances of individuals.
Settings are using the data to:
- compare setting data with the national pattern
- compare attainment of scale points to identify gaps
- explore the links between areas of learning
- track children and tailor provision.
Comparing outcomes
Comparing the school data with the national data opens up lines of enquiry. The national data presents outcomes each year for all children, girls and boys, for the proportion gaining a range of total point scores. For example, in 2006, 88 per cent of children gained a total point score of 6-plus in dispositions and attitudes; 51 per cent gained a total point score of 8-9 points; and 2 per cent gained a score of 1-3.
The national data set is a quantitative collection of the qualitative observational data gathered over time. Where a setting's outcomes are consistently above or below the national average, patterns of results are compared. For example, in 2006, 39 per cent of boys and 39 per cent of girls gained a total point score of 8-9 in knowledge and understanding of the world.
Many settings are using e-profile to refine their analysis. It is a useful tool for comparing the attainment of boys and girls in specific scale points. In one school where more boys gained high scores in knowledge and understanding than girls, scrutiny of individual scale points provided clues as to why.
Both groups achieved most scale points except point 7: 'finds out about and identifies the used of everyday technology and uses information and communication technology and programmable toys to support her/his learning'. Discussions revealed that boys dominated the use of ICT, and the organisation was reformed so that girls did not underachieve.
One school found that over 90 per cent of girls gained the point 'continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn', while little more than 60 per cent of boys did so. They reviewed every scale point to find differences in attainment. This revealed a 'feminine' provision. For example, role play in the garden centre emphasised buying flowers; there were few non-fiction books. This had had an impact on the outcomes for some children, and so the analysis led to a complete review of the provision.
Some settings set out the profile in a grid with the scale points on one axis and the children's names on another, ticking each point achieved. The horizontal analysis shows the gaps for a child, and the vertical analysis shows the gaps for a point of learning. The provision is checked for individual children who show more gaps than is usual for the cohort querying 'Are we supporting these children's needs?' Most often a reflective setting has already spotted and provided for these needs.
Occasionally a child has slipped under the radar. Where the gaps concern points of learning, plans are made to strengthen the provision both in Year 1 and at entry to Reception. One school used this analysis to show that there was too much adult talk and too little room made for children to communicate, with depressing effects on outcomes for social and communication skills.
Raising achievement
Some schools seek to ensure that children build well on the skills and knowledge acquired by the end of Reception. By exploring results from a range of assessment scales and discussing each child's circumstances, they identify reasonable achievement for the end of Year 2.
In one school they found in Year 1 all children to be on track except higher-attaining boys. Review found these boys were no longer 'interested, excited and motivated to learn'. The table-bound, worksheet-driven curriculum with little access to first-hand experience had crushed their desire to learn. This prompted work on improving transition and provision for Year 1 rather than training children to be prepared for an inappropriate curriculum.
Although the profile has been in place since 2003, this transforming work is not well enough understood. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of the real benefits EYFSP provides for children and their early educators.
- Brenda Spencer is an early years specialist and Ofsted inspector and has worked extensively for the Primary National Strategy and QCA on early assessment, Marion Dowling is an early years consultant and Tina Bruce is honorary visiting professor at the University of Roehampton.
FURTHER INFORMATION
- RAISEonline is a web-based system to disseminate school performance data which will replace the current Ofsted Performance and Assessment (PANDA). Visit: www.raiseonline.org.
