It's really difficult to explain in detail, as it's such (IMO) a ridiculously wordy and complicated document. The scores are fairly meaningless by themselves - they are just another way for the government to track 'progress' through schools (although I think that's back-fired with the FS profile because so many of the judgements are open to interpretation, and vary wildly from school to school). You should really have been offered a meeting with his teacher to discuss it. That's the whole point of the lay-out of the profiles - they were designed to be discussed face-to-face with parents, not just sent home. I would imagine, from what you say, that there are areas within the 'Personal,social and emotional' bit that the teacher feels your ds is still working on (it could be concentration, motivation, working with others, independence....a whole range of stuff), and I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about, but I would try to speak to his teacher anyway, just for your own interest.
I found this, pasted from The Standards site...which may, or may not, be useful (it's in teacher-speak, so full of silly jargon).
Question: What is a good level of attainment at the end of the Foundation Stage?
All six areas of the Foundation Stage are equally important and all are interdependent. For instance, a child cannot learn to read (Communication, language and literacy scale 6) without the appropriate attitudes and dispositions (Personal, social and emotional development scale 1) and will also need to link sounds and letters (Communication, language and literacy scale 5). Learning to write (Communication, language and literacy scale 7) is dependent on developing fine motor skills (Personal, social and emotional development scale 12) and is also closely linked to attitudes and dispositions (Personal, social and emotional development scale 1), linking sounds and letters (Communication, language and literacy scale 5) and learning to read (Communication, language and literacy scale 6). Consideration will need to be given to the stepping stones that lead towards particular early learning goals, not just in one area of learning but across all of them if this is considered relevant by the practitioner.
Each scale of the Foundation Stage Profile consists of nine statements or items.
- The first three reflect the stepping stones described within the context of the final year of the Foundation Stage.
- Items 4 to 8 are the early learning goals which most children are expected to achieve by the end of the Foundation Stage. Points 4 to 8 of the Foundation Stage Profile across all scales have equal value and can be achieved in any order. These five scale points (4-8) are the early learning goals, reordered and occasionally edited for the purposes of assessment.
- Item 9 describes achievement significantly beyond what is expected during the Foundation Stage. It has the level of challenge found in aspects of level 1 and sometimes aspects of level 2b of the National Curriculum.
Items 1-3 (based on the stepping stones) are likely to be achieved first, 4-8 can be achieved in any order. Item 9 can only be achieved once all other 8 items have been achieved.
The early learning goals (points 4 to 8 across all 13 scales) cover a wide spectrum, reflecting children's development at the end of the Foundation Stage. A score of 5 would not necessarily mean that a child had achieved points 1 to 5 on one of the scales. The child might have achieved 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 (total equals 5) and still be working towards the other early learning goals.