EYFS Best Practice - All about… observing progress

After years of many early years practitioners and teachers spending their valuable time looking for superficial outcomes and becoming over-reliant on electronic versions of Development Matters, we now have an opportunity to refocus practice on meaningful and respectful observation of children and to think more deeply about what we are seeing.

Development Matters (2012) was never intended to be used as a tick-list, and its warnings that ‘children develop at their own rates, and in their own ways’ have been carried forward in the Birth to 5 Matters guidance (2021):

‘Learning does not move forward in a straight, predictable and linear way. It can stall or even backtrack in one area, while strides and bursts are made in another area. Development should not be expected to be even across all areas, and the balance is likely to shift from one time to another.’

However, change is never easy, and after the comfort and familiarity of tick-lists, it requires having the confidence and energy to explore and reflect on new ways of working and being professionally confident in making decisions about children’s development and progress based on what you know about them (see The Meadows Nursery case study).

RECLAIMING OBSERVATION – A PROFESSIONALLY INFORMED SKILL

The best place to start is through your observations of children, as this is how you come to really know and understand how and what children are learning; you can then put your understanding ‘to good use’ by analysing and assessing what you have seen and heard and use this information to inform your teaching and support of the child. A process at the heart of practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) called assessment for learning:

‘2.1. Assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children’s progress, understand their needs, and to plan activities and support. Ongoing assessment (also known as formative assessment) is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners knowing children’s level of achievement and interests, and then shaping teaching and learning experiences for each child reflecting that knowledge. In their interactions with children, practitioners should respond to their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress and observations that parents and carers share.’ (EYFS Statutory framework, March 2021.)

Responding to day-to-day observations is probably one of the most complex and undervalued professional skills, mainly because educators are doing it so many times in a day that it gradually becomes an intuitive action. Birth to 5 Matters explains this professional teaching skill as part of the Observation, Assessment and Planning Cycle:

Observation-in-action – adults being constantly aware of children’s actions, communications and responses while they are in the middle of practice engaging with children through their play and activities.

Assessment-in-action – adults considering and seeking to understand the child’s thinking, learning and feelings in the midst of play and activities.

Planning-in-action – adults making professionally informed decisions about responses which enable them to support, extend and deepen children’s interactions and learning through playful encounters/teaching.

These often invisible actions are how practitioners and teachers are constantly fine-tuning young children’s development, learning and progress using their professionally informed knowledge of child development.

Observation is all about child development. It is our research where we gather everything we know about a child and then use that information to help us make professionally informed decisions about their development, learning and progress. Some of this information is documented in our observations and Learning Stories (like with Riley’s Car Adventures – see below).

Other sources come directly from the child through their conversations, play, paintings, drawings, writing, constructions, model-making, etc. and their interests, which are a vast and constant supply of ‘information’ combined with home experiences, culture and community. Information also comes from other perspectives, their key person and other members of the team, other professionals such as speech and language therapists, SEND support, social workers and parents or carers and family.

How we interpret this information through our assessments depends a lot on how much we know and understand about how children develop from birth to five-plus. For example, knowing the developmental pathway of children’s communication and language from birth, including ‘typical development’ and important ‘milestones’, while remembering that every child is unique and will develop and learn at their own rates, and in their own ways. So, rather than rely on using narrow tick-lists, it is time to start valuing your ‘observation tool kit’ and build your professional knowledge and confidence.

WHAT IS AN OBSERVATION TOOL KIT?

Everyone who works with young children will have an observation tool kit, but they may not be aware of it. Think back to what we have just covered about the power of observation. The more you observe then the more you will understand children’s development and learning, especially if you engage in regular, reflective discussions with your colleagues about what you have seen.

Your ‘tool kit’ builds with initial training where child development has been central; through continual professional development; your own reading; watching programmes on television or online from reputable websites; via professional Facebook groups. The tool kit is in your head and a virtual ‘container’ of your knowledge, skills and experience. These are some of the ‘tools’ that will support your practice and help you to become more informed, confident and accurate in articulating the holistic developmental progress of young children (Chilvers, 2019):

• A good knowledge of child development.
• The Characteristics of Effective Learning.
• Children’s schema/threads of thinking.
• Working together with parents and other partners.
• Following children’s interests and fascinations.
• The development of speech, language and communication.
• SEND.
• Sustained shared thinking.
• Levels of involvement and wellbeing.

How do we show children’s development and progress without using tick-lists? Ofsted has endorsed moving away from tick-lists and keeping practice focused on the children. Inspectors want to hear about the progress children have made in ‘learning and development relative to their starting points’ (Education Inspection Framework) and ‘find out about the story of a child’, including:

• What they knew and could do when they started at the provision.
• What they can do now and how you got them there.
• What your plans are for the child, so they are ready for the next stage of their learning. (Ofsted, 2021.)

The Birth to 5 Matters guidance helps practitioners and teachers to follow children’s progress in the areas of learning and development by using ‘Ranges’ from one to six and the overlapping age spans from birth to 71 months as a ‘continuum of development’. They act as a guide or map to show children’s unique learning journey from birth.

WHAT IS A DEVELOPMENTAL CONTINUUM?

Children’s development, outside the womb, starts from the minute they are born. All children have a natural, innate developmental momentum, primed and ready to play and explore and be active learners, to make progress in the best ways that they can. If we think of this development as a continuum, we can more easily identify their unique starting points, and see the progress they make from one position to another in all areas and aspects of their learning.

Birth to 5 Matters includes, under the heading ‘A Unique Child: what a child might be doing’, a broad outline for each Area of Learning which describes the ‘typical progression in development and learning’ that children may follow, for example in physical development. None of this is intended to be a checklist or a tick-list to be highlighted – children’s development is far more complex than this. It is a guide, a point of reference to support practitioners and teachers’ knowledge and understanding of children’s development, learning and progress.

The Ranges help practitioners and teachers to identify a range that most closely describes the child’s development and learning, and then consider the suggestions for adults within that range (or earlier ranges) to plan to support continued progress. The typical age spans help us to refine children’s progress and see if they are roughly where we would expect them to be, or if they are progressing more slowly or quickly.

Developmental continuum

HOW DOES THIS ALL WORK IN PRACTICE?

Imagine that you are about to make a summative assessment of one of your key children; in this example, it is Riley who attends The Meadows Nursery in Sheffield (see case study). Georgina, his key person, has taken a step back to gather her thoughts and make a progress summary: Where was he a few weeks or months ago? Where is he now? What progress has Riley made in that time?

To help find the answers to these questions, Georgina gathers everything she knows about Riley and what he has been doing. For example, her observations, documented Learning Stories and short observations and other information from her head (The Tool Kit), thinking about how he is learning (the Characteristics of Effective Learning); conversations with Riley’s family; other reports or reviews, etc. Then she follows these steps:

Step 1: Use the Developmental Continuum and think through Riley’s progress in each of the Areas of learning, starting with Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED), Prime Areas and then the Specific Areas.

Step 2:Look at the Developmental Continuum and ask this question about each aspect, for example: Which Range do I think best describes Riley’s development and learning in making relationships? This means that you are not directly thinking of the age of the child, as development may be ahead for the age or slower for their age. Remember – child development is not an exact science!

Step 3: Now make a professionally informed evaluation of everything you know about Riley to help make your decision. This may feel quite challenging at first, as tick-lists have been an easy option; however, remember that you know your children – you have built a relationship with them, observed them, talked, played and taught them. You have watched them grow. Also:

Draw on your ‘tool kit’, particularly child development, the Characteristics of Effective Learning and speech and language development, as they all contribute to Riley’s development.

Talk together and discuss Riley’s development and progress with a colleague. This helps you deepen your own knowledge and understanding, extend your ‘tool kit’ skills and strengthen your confidence to explain the ‘story’ of the child (remember Ofsted!).

Once you have decided the Range, use the overlapping age strands to refine Riley’s progress and see if he is roughly where we would expect him to be or if he is progressing more slowly or quickly.

Remember that Riley’s development and learning is holistic, it is not just about the ‘areas of knowledge and skills, but also his emotional wellbeing and connections, and development of attitudes and dispositions for learning (Characteristics of Effective Learning)’. (Birth to 5 Matters.)

If you are still unsure or want to confirm or clarify your decision, have a look at the Areas of learning tables at the back of Birth to 5 Matters, remembering that they ‘can support understanding of development and learning and the adult’s contribution to the process, but this should be seen as a set of possibilities and not a prescription for either the child or adults’.

Step 4: Reflect on Riley’s development in the other Areas and aspects of learning in the same way and build the whole picture of his progress. This way of working brings back professional trust for practitioners and teachers and, importantly, recognition and respect for children’s developmental potential; we see and value so much more.

Step 5: Having used the Developmental Continuum to map Riley’s progress in the Areas of learning, it is important to see an overall holistic picture of his development and the relationship between the Areas and aspects of learning, then you can review his progress over time. Georgina, Riley’s key person, has done exactly this with the Development Map, having made three progress summaries, on entry at 27 months old; at 29 months after he had settled in; and a review for parents at 30 months.

Riley's Development Map

ON REFLECTION

Having reflected on Riley’s Development Map, Georgina documents the key points to share with his parents and also to consider where he needed further support to extend his learning. Here is her review for communication and language:

‘Riley has made fantastic progress… His listening and attention has moved from Range 3 into 4, he responds to his name and pays attention to environmental sounds such as an ambulance or aeroplane. He enjoys simple stories and rhymes, bringing his favourite books and car magazines to discuss. His speech has become clearer since giving up his dummy, he uses some single words which are important to him, “Cars”, “Layla”, “Mummy” and repeats back simple phrases, “All gone” etcetera. His speech has made the biggest jump, Range 2 when he first started to Range 4, which is appropriate for his age. He has good understanding following simple instructions and questions. We will be using simple narratives with Riley alongside his play to extend his vocabulary.’

Georgina’s reflections on using her professionally informed knowledge and experience to map Riley’s progress are empowering. She comments, ‘Tick lists don’t allow me to use my own knowledge of the child; moving away from them has made me a more confident practitioner. The Developmental Continuum has allowed me to use my own judgement about where a child is, based on what I know about that child; I have more freedom to trust myself.’

CASE STUDY: The Meadows Nursery

The Meadows Nursery has partnered with the Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) Early Years Research Centre. It is involved in research projects including ‘Supporting two-year-olds and their families’ (with Save the Children); ‘Children’s early language development’; ‘Relationship Mapping’; and ‘Using the Development Map to see children’s progress’ (with Di Chilvers).

The Development Map project connects with the EYFS Statutory framework and Birth to 5 Mattersto support the gradual move away from using tick-lists in order to:

build professional knowledge, experience and confidence in observing, assessing and planning for young children’s development, progress and learning

use creative and contemporary ways to involve children and families in meaningful partnerships between home and nursery.

They use the Observation Tool Kit self-evaluation to further practitioners’ knowledge of child development; observation and Learning Stories to document children’s play, interests and language; and professional dialogue to deepen thinking and build confidence. This is where the team engage in regular, reflective discussions with each other and an external mentor to talk about what they see children doing, communicating and saying in their play and what that tells them about their development. This is a process which helps them to make connections, deepen understanding and fine tune their knowledge of development and progress.

Manager Leanna Clark (pictured right with key person Georgina) has seen at first hand how her team have grown in confidence in just five months. She comments that practitioners ‘speak more confidently and have a breadth of knowledge about the children, seeing the whole child and capturing their voices, especially those with SEND. They also feel more professionally respected by parents and others because of the decisions they are making about their children’s development, learning and progress.’

She adds, ‘If others are worried about moving away from using tick-lists, I would advise them to trust yourselves as professionals, be brave to question yourselves and others. Challenge and support each other as professionals because you know your children.’

REFERENCES

• Birth to 5 Matters: Non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage, 2021, Early Education: https://bit.ly/3CtPuZV
• Birth to 5 Matters Child Development Overview: https://bit.ly/3HWTF16
• ‘Ranges and overlapping ovals: young children’s development and progress as a continuum – A Video Resource’: https://bit.ly/3hSdBYD
• Chilvers D (2019) ‘The Observation Tool Kit – A pedagogical tool to support good practice in observation, assessmentand mapping children’s progress’, WatchMeGrow: https://watchmegrow.uk
• The Development Map: https://bit.ly/3hPVNxc
• The Meadows Nursery and the Sheffield Hallam University Research Centre: https://bit.ly/3CpLtWa