Revised EYFS unveiled for 'early adopter' schools to implement in September

In its response to the consultation on the reforms, the Government acknowledged the impact of Covid-19 on the early years sector and schools, but said it would go ahead with offering schools the opportunity to bring in the EYFS reforms a year early.

The Department for Education has also published its response to the 14-week consultation on the  EYFS reforms, which closed at the end of January.

Initial reaction from the sector has been mixed (see comments below), with some early years experts saying the Government had not listened to their views, and had missed an opportunity to bring in reforms that would close the gap between the most disadvantaged children and their peers.

The Government’s two stated key aims for the proposed changes to the EYFS are ‘to improve outcomes at age five, particularly in early language and literacy, and reduce workload so that teachers can spend more time interacting with children in their care'.

The consultation sought views on changes to the learning and development and assessment requirements as set out in the EYFS statutory framework, and a proposed change to the safeguarding and welfare requirements to promote good oral health.

As a result, the promotion of good oral health has been included on the revised safeguarding and welfare requirements to help reduce tooth decay and hospital admissions.

The response calls the education programmes 'brief, high-level summaries, and points out that more detailed curriculum guidance on early years education from birth to Reception is being developed separately through a revision of the ‘Development Matters’ guidance, led by Dr Julian Grenier. The new curriculum guidance will remain non-statutory and did not form part of the consultation.

Changes to the educational programmes

• Communication and language will remain as proposed;
• PSED will include additional information on self-care and healthy eating;
• Physical Development will be strengthened to include a greater focus on development from birth to Reception and on the link between gross and fine motor skills;
• Literacy will include a stronger emphasis on pre-Reception literacy learning, and the link between language comprehension and later reading and writing;
• Mathematics will include a greater detail on the importance of shapes, spatial reasoning and measure as part of early maths learning, and how children can foster a love of maths;
• Understanding the World will include wider experiences for children; and
• Expressive Arts and Design will include a wider variety of ways children can develop their creative skills.

The final 17 Early Learning Goals (ELGs) are:

Communication and Language

Listening, Attention and Understanding ELG

Speaking ELG

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Self-Regulation ELG

Managing Self ELG

Building Relationships ELG

Physical Development

Gross Motor Skills ELG

Fine Motor Skills ELG

Literacy

Comprehension ELG

Word Reading ELG

Writing ELG

Mathematics

Number ELG

Numerical Patterns ELG

Understanding the World

Past and Present ELG

People, Culture and Communities ELG

The Natural World ELG

Expressive Arts and Design

Creating with Materials ELG

Being Imaginative and Expressive ELG

 The consultation response highlights the changes to the EYFS educational programmes as below:

• Communication and Language will include a focus on adult-child interactions, and the word ‘accurate’ has been removed from the Speaking ELG when referring to tenses
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development will remain as proposed
• Physical Development will remain as proposed
• Literacy will remain as proposed
• Mathematics will include greater clarity to counting and comparing quantities in the Numerical Patterns ELG. Government will proceed with its focus on number and numerical patterns within the mathematics ELGs as the strongest predictor for later maths outcomes. This also reflects Government’s continued commitment to strengthen the teaching of early numeracy so that all children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are able to start year 1 with a strong and confident foundation in number. Practitioners and teachers will still be required to teach children about shape, space and measures, as part of a well-rounded curriculum, as set out in the revised mathematics educational programme;
• Understanding the World will include a change in relation to the Past and Present ELG to further clarify the expectation of children understanding the concept of ‘past’; and
• Expressive Arts and Design will include reference to a greater variety of use of tools, materials and techniques that children will need to demonstrate for the Creating with Materials ELG.

It adds, ‘The responses from the consultation will inform the new ELG exemplification materials to ensure teachers have a clear understanding of each ELG and have the confidence to make accurate and consistent judgements for each child across the 17 ELGs, as part of the summative assessment, and to support moderation of the EYFSP.’ 

Assessment

The Government has removed the statutory duty for local authorities to externally moderate EYFS profile judgements.

The Government also consulted on whether the ‘exceeding’ judgement should be removed.

It said this proposal was ‘popular’ with respondents and it would therefore remove this criteria.

‘We are confident that this will free up teachers’ time so that they can spend more time supporting children in rich curriculum activities and ensuring that as many children as possible can reach an expected level of development before they begin year,’ it said.

Consultation response

There were 2,452 contributions to the consultation from individuals, including teachers, nursery managers, heads, practitioners, childminders – and sector organisations, including teaching unions.

The consultation states, ‘Government recognises the impact the Covid-19 outbreak has had on the early years sector and schools, particularly in terms of the impact on children’s learning and development as a result of closures.

‘The EYFS reforms outlined in this response provide a strong basis to support children who may have missed critical months of early education. Therefore, Government will proceed with offering schools the opportunity to adopt the final reforms from September 2020, followed by statutory national implementation as planned from September 2021.’

Education Minister Nick Gibb said, 'It is encouraging to see that many Reception teachers and early years staff welcome our plans to reduce time spent on unnecessary paperwork and help them spend more time interacting with pupils in the classroom. These reforms will strengthen the teaching practice and improve pupils’ vocabulary and reading as they move into Year 1 and beyond.

'We will be rolling out these improvements to the whole early years sector from September 2021 and will continue working closely with nurseries and schools so that these positive changes keep driving up the standard of early education across the country.'

Dr Julian Grenier, headteacher at Sheringham Nursery School and Children's Centre, said, 'I think it’s important for the sector to take hold of the opportunities these reforms offer us. Reducing the workload around the EYFS Profile will enable practitioners to focus their assessment work where it’s most needed. That’s for children in danger of falling behind the majority, and children who may have barriers to their learning.

'This is an opportunity for schools to think about their early years curriculum, and what they want children to learn, experience and enjoy, rather than focusing on assessment data. The key to giving children better and more equal life-chances is to strengthen the profession in the early years. I hope that colleagues will seize this opportunity to put less emphasis on generating "data" on more on developing a stronger and better-trained workforce.'

Comments

Beatrice Merrick, chief executive Early Education, said, ‘The reforms to the EYFS are a missed opportunity to make this world-renowned framework even better, to improve outcomes for all children and to close the gap for the most disadvantaged. 

‘Government has not listened to the members of Early Education and the other sector organisations which came together as a coalition to offer our expertise, based on implementing principled early years pedagogy with children on a daily basis. 

‘Despite claiming it wishes to reduce workload, the Government has made wholesale changes which will create additional work without improving practice. 

‘We cannot imagine why any schools would wish to be an early adopter of an untried framework at the same time as they are supporting children returning to school after COVID-19. Reception teachers need to be fully focused on meeting children’s needs, not on getting to grips with a new framework or set of Early Learning Goals.’

Stella Ziolkowski, NDNA’s director of quality and training, said, 'We welcome the fact that there’s a lot of time for the sector to take on board the changes that are being proposed.

'It is disappointing that the Department for Education hasn’t responded to the sector’s concerns, for example the removal of the early learning goal space, shape and measure which is integral to maths and its concepts. This could create less emphasis on teaching and we are concerned that in time this could lead to a future skills gap.

'Changes to the Educational Programmes do not fully take into account the vital role of non-verbal skills in communication including: attention, listening and understanding for communication to take place.

'The practical detail will be important so the sector will want to see what will be said in the revised Development Matters. This will be an important tool in supporting the sector and practitioners in delivering the new EYFS. We urge the DfE to engage with the sector through this review.

'Our workforce research showed that before coronavirus there were a growing number of unqualified staff in the sector and we need to check this position after the CJRS has finished. The sector will need financial investment from the Government to ensure that training is available to all practitioners working in the sector to adopt the changes made to both the EYFS and the non-statutory guidance prior to September 2021.

'Early years providers are focussing on delivering childcare in very difficult circumstances at the moment with a lot of uncertainty about the coming months. We urgently need to see recovery and transformation funding to support providers now to make sure they are sustainable and able to deliver the revised EYFS next year.'

Helen Donohoe, Policy Advisor at the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) said, ‘As the Government today sets out its EYFS consultation response, it is clear that they have listened in a number of areas and we welcome that. For example, we strongly agree with the importance placed on shapes, spatial reasoning and measure within mathematics.

‘However, there are areas where we would have liked to have seen different approaches. The removal of characteristics of learning from the reporting requirements of the profile is, for example, regressive in our view. We strongly believe that the way in which children learn is as important as what they learn, children under five learn in a very different way to older children for example, and if it is not a reporting requirement in the framework there is a danger this will be ignored.

‘Nonetheless, the focus must now be on clear, accessible and fitting guidance for how the framework should be delivered. That guidance must be inclusive and appropriate for all settings, not just pre-schools and nurseries, but also smaller childminding settings, acknowledging that high quality learning and development is delivered in different ways.’

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said, 'We’re incredibly disappointed by the DfE’s response to the EYFS consultation. At every stage of the process, well-informed and constructive contributions were submitted from a variety of experts in early years development and they have almost entirely been ignored by the government.

• EYFS Early Adopter Framework
• Early Years Foundation Stage Reforms - Government consultation response

• The DfE has also confirmed today (1 July) that disadvantaged and vulnerable pre-school aged children will receive extra support as they transition back into early education. Grants worth more than £1 million over six months will go to national early years voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations including National Children’s Bureau, Early Years Alliance and PACEY.