The report, The Introduction of the Foundation Stage Profile, published last week, said LEAs, headteachers and practitioners gave it a 'positive, if cautious, welcome' overall. They also welcomed the Profile's observational assessment approach, but practitioners wanted more help in planning and organising the observations.
The 'snapshot' report looked at six LEAs to investigate how the Foundation Stage Profile was received by those with different baseline assessment traditions in the first term of its introduction. It found support for the Foundation Stage Profile to be almost universal, with only two of the 29 people interviewed hostile to its introduction, believing that no such formalised assessment of children was necessary.
The report found the key training issue raised by schools was that of training for support staff, which they felt 'should be viewed as a priority'. It also found overall agreement that observational assessment was 'an integral part of good practice' in the Foundation Stage, and that this was even true in LEAs with no tradition of it in their baseline assessment scheme.
However, although most practitioners felt comfortable with observational assessment, some of the responses indicated reservations, particularly with the planning and organisation of assessment observations.
The report added, 'Reception teachers sometimes needed reassurance in stepping back and observing children, rather than feeling that they should always be teaching.' It said there was general agreement that 'practitioners who were not qualified teachers were often in need of additional training in making observations of children'.
Interviewees were 'broadly confident' about their ability to make the judgements of children's development that the Foundation Stage Profile required to make and record assessments. As for the six areas of learning, the two most 'difficult' were found to be knowledge and understanding of the world and creative development.
Pat Wills, national chair of Early Education, welcomed the report's findings. She said, 'This report's findings are positive. As such they reflect what we're hearing from our members.
'Schools focus on literacy and numeracy, but although all areas of learning should have equal status, the one that falls off the end is knowledge and understanding of the world.' She said playgroups were particularly at a disadvantage in this respect as many did not have access to the resources necessary to promote it.
