Observation, Assessment and Planning in the EYFS: Part 7: Record-keeping

It is unlikely that many people began working with children because they enjoyed paperwork. However, for many it seems to dominate their lives - wrestling with what to write down, when to write it down and just how much to write.

A vast amount of mental energy is used on getting the paperwork 'right', and in my view at least, this becomes a barrier to understanding what is useful, both for adults and children. Despite the fact that none of us are judged by the weight of our ring binders, many well-intentioned practitioners seem to take 'look, listen and note' (see Practice Guidance for the EYFS, pages 26-116) as an invitation to jot down almost everything that they see. This is inevitably counter-productive as we become blinkered by mental exhaustion to the significant achievements made by children. I once heard an exasperated practitioner describe record-keeping in her setting as 'death by Post-It notes'.

We need to have confidence in our record-keeping procedures to the same degree that we have confidence in our practice, so that we are able to explain good practice in this area to ourselves and others.

Record-keeping should reflect our beliefs and understandings about how children learn best, in the same way our environment, and therefore our planning, does. Inappropriate methods of record-keeping can easily mask young children's achievements, being a true reflection of neither what they know nor how they came to know it.

However, if we take control of record-keeping (and with it, assessment), we can take control of the curriculum and work to provide experiences that are in the best interests of the children. The evidence that we collect needs to reflect the experiences that we have planned and needs to be recorded in a way that truly shows not only what children know and have learned, but how and why they have learned it.

CHARTING ACHIEVEMENT

Much has already been said about planning in this series, and in this article I want to concentrate on record-keeping - the charting of young children's achievements and the celebration of their progress.

What I want to show is that record-keeping, if made manageable, should be both fascinating and empowering. Why fascinating? Because, ultimately, record-keeping should be a celebration of children's significant achievements. Focusing on what the learner can do, rather than what they cannot do yet, is more likely to encourage a positive disposition towards learning.

Looking at all the children as active, competent learners is a philosophy that needs to underpin the environments that we create, and supports the development of self-esteem. Our job is a privilege; we are watching young children develop at a faster rate than at any other time in their lives, and we are fortunate to be able to be part of such development.

If our record-keeping is of the most useful kind, it should empower us to justify a child-centred approach and, indeed, reflect upon and develop the learning environment that we create for the children.

It is also important to understand that ways of record-keeping should match our policies for planning, observation and assessment. If our record-keeping tools are reductionist in style - for example, reams of tick sheets that merely display knowledge that is 'known' or 'unknown' - then we do ourselves, the children and their parents a great disservice. In fact, we may be in the unfortunate position of underestimating children's intellectual potential.

If we create a rich learning environment for the children, then it is highly inappropriate to use this environment as some kind of early years examination hall! But if 'tick sheets' are the predominant method of recording, then this is exactly what it will become.

For many, 'ticking a box' is efficient and does not take up too much time. At a glance we can see who knows what - or so it appears. The internet is rife with examples of such record-keeping devices - tick sheets based on development matters, tick sheets from babyhood through to pre-school age, even tick sheets turned into Excel spreadsheets abound, as people seek an efficient way of recording what children apparently know and can do.

The problem is that such information cannot inform planning for individual children. The implication is that either you can or can't do something - with no acknowledgement of context, or the recursive nature of learning. This has a knock-on effect. We begin to look at children in terms of what they can't do, rather than what they can, and all because of a method of recording. It's actually quite shocking.

TESTING CHILDREN

Let's examine this issue more closely. One of the statements from Development Matters, for Problem Solving, Reasoning and Number, is 'order two or three items by length or height' (Practice Guidance for the EYFS, page 74). If we merely have to tick this box, then it is tempting to 'test' children by offering them three rods to sort, or even worse, offering a worksheet that will give you 'evidence' that they know which is the longest, tallest or shortest.

Children would have to be called away from their play to engage with the adult who has been charged with the task of assessing. (Remember that we are being encouraged and, indeed, advised to collect the vast majority of our evidence from child-led activities.)

Many publishers feed such inappropriate practice by creating resources specifically for such purposes. One can imagine how the above statement might be dealt with - the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears springs instantly to mind, not to mention the Three Billy Goats Gruff. I can visualise only too well young children cutting out pictures of bears, goats, chairs, bowls or whatever, and being required to stick them in the right order.

Some children will cope with these tasks; others will struggle, because of the context, and will be deemed to have 'failed'. Some will be admonished because the 'cutting out' is not neat - which in the context of the task in hand, is irrelevant. In this case, the mode of record-keeping will have masked the achievements of most children. It is also unlikely that children's dispositions to learn will be high, and levels of engagement almost certainly won't. Most importantly, it won't be the children's fault!

However, if children are observed in a wide range of contexts, for example small-world play or construction, then our observations will show us whether or not they can order items by length and height.

Children using small-world dinosaurs, for example, frequently order and sort them, without an overbearing adult exhorting them to do so. They have a deep-rooted need to sort and classify, organise and arrange. Play with other small-world creatures such as minibeasts and snakes would promote similar behaviours where the reasons for ordering are the children's, not those designed by an adult.

Seeing a purpose for what you are doing is a key factor in achievement. This implies that high-quality, self-directed play will support appropriately high achievement across all areas of the curriculum. It is also important to note that there are implications for resources here. Small-world figures of different lengths and heights will be needed, and will have to be readily available if children are to exhibit such behaviours.

Not only will observing children in meaningful contexts provide information about what they know; there will also be opportunities to discuss children's behaviours with them and to think about 'next steps' that are truly relevant. Because of this, any record-keeping procedure must allow space to describe (albeit briefly) the context in which children were successful, so that such contexts can be repeated and powerful learning opportunities revisited.

We also need to take into account the child's view of their achievements, which may not necessarily be the same as ours. Children require time to learn to talk about their own learning, and adults should give them a language with which to reflect.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

It is perhaps timely here to re-emphasise the notion of Formative and Summative assessment. The vast majority of our record-keeping in the Early Years Foundation Stage should be our formative assessments. This is what we do all the time, in the outdoor area, during routines, small-group activities or larger carpet sessions. Its prime purpose is to inform the way that we plan for the children in our care. We need to develop skills and confidence in writing down significant achievements and to be able to resist the temptation to write down too much!

In our desire to 'know where children are' and to impress this knowledge upon others, our record-keeping systems may become unwieldy and cease to perform their most important function - that of engaging adults in the learning process of young children.

There can be no doubt that part of our role as practitioners in the EYFS is to ensure that the children in our care make progress while they are with us. All children are entitled to come to an environment that supports their emotional well-being first and foremost, ensuring that there will be a capacity and desire to learn. Adults who do not give high regard to the emotional well-being of children cannot expect high levels of involvement from children, and conditions will not be conducive to intellectual growth.

Our problems begin, of course, when we try to explain what we know about young children to those who would judge us. It might sound like an easy option to say, 'Well, they can count to ten' or 'He knows at least 23 letter sounds', but sadly, valuing such readily quantifiable knowledge validates the worst kind of record-keeping and could be used to encourage an environment where we are constantly testing children, rather than teaching them.

QUANTIFIABLE EVIDENCE

With the examples given above, the other problem (at least for me) is that they are so readily quantifiable that progress in such knowledge can be measured numerically. This is to the detriment of all concerned. How many 'letters and sounds', phonemes or graphemes a child knows is one thing, but surely what is actually important is how they use and apply such knowledge.

As a profession we really have a duty to begin to articulate what progress looks like in such areas, in order to justify practice that is appropriate for children. To continue with the example of alphabetic knowledge, collecting pieces of young children's mark-making and emergent writing will tell us much about their understanding of letter-sound relationships, and is a far better indicator of how they are analysing such a relationship than the phonic assessment sheets provided by many publishers. However, unless samples of early writing are collected and observations are made of the process of writing as part of the record-keeping procedures of the setting, then such evidence is lost.

Examining small groups of children for whom it is difficult to gather evidence in any one area can be extremely illuminating and can lead to invaluable reflection on our practice. For example, one group of boys did not appear to be motivated to write until large sheets of paper and felt pens were offered outside, when they took to mark-making with great enthusiasm. Evidence for mark-making had not previously been collected from outside, but now it became part of regular practice following the boys' success. The nursery thought about more ways of making marks outdoors, including mud, sticks, sand and brushes with pots of water.

As a consequence, many more children became involved and were able to demonstrate a positive disposition to an activity which, when confined to sitting at a table indoors, can seem rather unattractive!

Conclusion

A favourite quote of mine is particularly pertinent to this article.

- 'The kind of nets we know how to weave, determine the kinds of nets we cast. These nets in turn determine the kinds of fish we catch.'

- Eisner, 1982, Cognition and the Curriculum

To early years practitioners the implications of this should be clear. We need to familiarise ourselves with the widest range of record-keeping procedures possible. If we do this, then we can make informed choices about those that best support a play-based approach to learning and teaching. Using open-ended record-keeping systems that do not rely on quantifying learning by numbers will mean that we will catch more children being successful.

To continue with the fishing metaphor, there are no restrictive quotas in the world of early education. We need to be in the business of 'catching' as many children as possible.

It would also serve us well to remember that children are, as a recent participant on one of my courses observed, 'barometers of the environment'. Their achievements, behaviours and dispositions ceaselessly measure the quality of the opportunities that we offer them. Our professionalism includes being able to take readings of these barometers and adjust our plans accordingly.

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REFLECTING ON RECORD-KEEPING

- Do you feel your record-keeping systems reflect your beliefs about how young children learn best?

- Are they in keeping with a play-based approach?

- Do you value achievements in child-led activities as much as those that have an adult focus?

- Do you feel that 'one-off' activities have to be planned in order to complete your records? How could this be changed?

- Are your record-keeping systems a tool for development? How are they used?

- Do you ensure that parents can contribute towards their child's records?

- Do you value and celebrate achievements from home?