The Department for Education has published exemplification materials to provide support for schools when completing the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) assessment for children at the end of reception year. These are a collection of case study videos that demonstrate teachers and leaders having professional discussions about individual children’s development and their EYFSP judgements. A vodcast for schools, multi-academy trusts and local authorities has also been published alongside the videos to explain the changes and what is different this year.
The videos are designed to help schools understand and use the new early learning goals (ELGs) and profile assessment under the 2021 EYFS framework. Schools do not need to replicate the discussions held in the videos. The videos include a combination of children who have met and not met the expected levels of development across the ELGs, with teachers discussing how they came to those judgements. The EYFSP handbook sets out the statutory requirements for the EYFSP assessment in the 2021/22 academic year.
DfE have deliberately taken a different approach to these exemplification materials to be clear that teachers, schools and settings should move away from excessive tracking and evidence collection and to avoid giving schools additional criteria to consider when completing the EYFSP, beyond what is set out in the new goals themselves. The exemplification materials demonstrate how, over the course of the reception year, practitioners build their knowledge and understanding of what children know, understand and can do. Practitioners show how they can draw on this knowledge and their own expert professional judgement to make an accurate summative assessment at the end of the year. This is sufficient to assess a child’s individual level of development in relation to each of the ELGs. Teachers are not expected to record evidence for each of the ELGs or provide proof of the child’s level of development for the purposes of completing the EYFSP. What matters most is providing information to parents/carers and Key Stage 1 teachers in order to support each child’s development and next steps. Local authorities will also still collect the data to form the national dataset on early years children’s outcomes.
We previously published a small suite of videos with direct messages from DfE, Ofsted and early adopter schools talking about their experiences in delivering the reforms and how they have changed their approach to the EYFS and assessment. These earlier videos are also part of our efforts to ensure a shift in culture away from unnecessary assessment paperwork for teachers and are available here.
New vodcast on Ofsted inspections and the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
We are also pleased to share with you a new vodcast on Ofsted inspections under the new EYFS.
Gill Holden, Principal Officer for the Early Childhood Unit at the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), speaks to Phil Minns HMI and Wendy Ratcliff HMI about Ofsted’s approach to inspection and what settings can expect. Gill then speaks to Katrina Rose from Little Acorns Nursery and Natalie Willcock from Corby Glen Community Primary School about their recent experiences of Ofsted inspection, from the initial notification of inspection, the inspectors' focus on the day and their top tips for other settings.
Ofsted make reference to a number of resources and materials during the vodcast, which you can find links to below:
