Taking Notes - observation and assessment

It is impossible to miss the references to observation and assessment in the Early Learning Goals document. 'Practitioners must be able to observe and respond appropriately to children' and are required to identify 'the progress and future learning needs of children through observations which are evaluated, recorded and shared regularly with parents, so that each child's particular needs are met'.

Although many early years practitioners would agree that they need to observe the children in their groups, they sometimes say that they feel guilty if they are 'just observing'. The emphasis on observation in the new Foundation Stage guidance is therefore very welcome.
Assessment explained

Observation is concerned with watching, listening and gathering evidence.  Early years practitioners need to record what they see children doing and what they hear them saying.  They also need to keep carefully selected, dated examples of drawings, paintings, models and early writing, in each case noting how the child approached the activity and what they said about their achievements. Occasionally practitioners might tape or even video record children's actions and interactions.

Observations and samples of work provide the factual evidence needed to make assessments. Making an assessment requires practitioners to evaluate this evidence and make some judgements about a child's development and learning. These judgements should provide a positive record of what the child knows and can do, and should demonstrate how the child is developing positive dispositions towards their learning, such as confidence, curiosity and persistence. Parents have a right to expect that early years staff will base assessments of their children on factual evidence, which has been professionally collected and from which observation and assessment plans can be made to enable the children to make further progress.

Children enter pre-schools, nurseries and reception classes having had a range of different experiences within their family and community, and at different stages of development. During the first five years of life, development is rapid, and significant changes may take place on a daily basis. It is therefore essential that early years practitioners focus on aspects of the children's development such as their use of language, their physical and social skills and their developing knowledge and understanding. They also need to observe carefully to find out about the child's interests and learning styles. 

Effective evaluation

Darren was a very active child who rarely settled at any activity for more than a few minutes. He enjoyed playing outside on the tricycles and would concentrate on this activity for much longer periods. Darren's family was temporarily homeless and was living in cramped bed and breakfast accommodation. By choosing to spend a lot of time out of doors, he was meeting his own need to have space and to be physically active. However, staff were concerned that he was not accessing a broad curriculum. Asking him to come and do an activity at a table was not effective in helping him to develop positive dispositions towards learning  his impatience to get away was clear when he asked the member of staff, 'Have I finished yet?'

After evaluating their observations and making some assessments, the staff team planned to develop bike play for Darren and a group of other children with similar needs. With the children they made number plates for all the wheeled toys; they encouraged all children wanting to ride bikes to make a driving licence which included their signature; they introduced road markings and traffic signs and set up a garage where vehicles could be repaired. This included diaries for appointments, a calendar, a clock, a receipt book and some lists on clip-boards for ticking off which checks and repairs had been made on a particular vehicle. Finally they arranged for a parent who worked as a motor mechanic to visit to show the children what is under a car's bonnet and how some simple checks are made.

In this way the staff ensured that the children accessed a broad curriculum and at the same time maintained positive dispositions such as curiosity, excitement, willingness to have a go and persistence. They recognised that the same curriculum content or learning objectives can be accessed in a range of ways and saw no reason why every child should be made to take part in the same activity. 

Challenging perceptions

Young children often demonstrate their most sophisticated levels of achievement within activities they have chosen for themselves. Sophie was playing in the home corner alongside another child. She was sitting next to the telephone and was looking in a Yellow Pages directory. She told the other child, 'I'm looking for my nanny's number. Her name is Julia and her name starts with J.' Sophie had found the J section in the directory. Because this learning context was meaningful to Sophie, and because she was prompted by the rich resources which had been made available by staff, she was stimulated to demonstrate what she knew about letters of the alphabet and about how you access someone's telephone number. She may not have shared this knowledge with an adult in a less meaningful, more abstract activity.

It is essential to observe all children in activities they have chosen themselves as well as when they are taking part in adult directed experiences.  Role play settings, because they have a strong link with the real world, often inspire children to use the knowledge and skills they have learned at home.

Sharing with parents

Early years practitioners need to remember that they do not see the whole child in their setting. Children may behave very differently at home and may demonstrate skills at home that are never seen in the setting. For example, three-year-old Kim did not talk to anyone at nursery. Her first language was French and her parents had, with the help of an interpreter, told her key worker that none of the family spoke English. After Kim had been in the nursery for half a term, the key worker talked to her mother about Kim's progress and was told that at home Kim told her baby brother in English what she did at nursery. It was not long after this discussion that Kim began to talk in English to her key worker.

Parents may also have illuminating information about a child's learning and behaviour. In one nursery the children had been learning about pulleys, prompted by a nearby building site with a crane. Jason had been watchful but had not seemed to be particularly involved with the various activities. The staff were therefore surprised to hear from his mother how at the weekend he had begged her to make a detour past the building site to show her the crane, and how he had explained how a pulley works.

Another child, Amanda, had had a difficult morning one day at a nursery. She had poured a pot of paint on to the floor, had ripped another child's drawing and had refused to join her story group. Her key worker sensitively shared observations of Amanda's morning with her mother at the end of the session. The mother explained that Amanda was probably feeling cross or upset that day because she and her husband had had an argument the night before, the whole family had overslept and it had been a very tense start to the day. This explanation enabled the key worker to feel empathy for the child and to be able to plan to support her.

Practitioners need to share their observations with parents and  encourage them to contribute observations of the child at home. It is also valuable for practitioners to involve parents in evaluating an observation and making some joint assessments. This can be professionally challenging, but it is also what makes early years work so uniquely enjoyable.