Early Years Foundation Stage-Confused!!

[user1471003665]

Hello,

My daughter is 3.5 and goes to nursery 3 days a week. We have an app and they update it with photos and observations. All of her observations when she was a toddler were always exceeded but for the last year, except for one, they are all classed as emerging. Does this mean that she is below where she needs to be development wise and should I worry? I’m confused as the write up for the observation is always so positive and then next to it, it says emerging.

The upper age brackets are quite wide and eyfs is infact until the end of reception

It will depend on the month band they are assessing against. Once they have exceeded one month band (30-50 months for example) they will start to look at the next month band (40-60 months). They will start by emerging on the next month band. It is completely normal and expected

It specs what age bracket the 'emerging' is. If she is 3.5 then she's about 42 months, so she should be solidly in 30-50 months, or emerging in 40-60+. You can easily Google the 'development matters' document and see whether the observations match the 30-50 or 40-60+ age group.

You do not need to worry at all. If she were just at home with you would you be worried at all? No....it's just because they have written a word on a piece of paper. It bares no resemblance to how well she will do at school. Don't give it anymore thought or worry.

If nursery think there is an actual issue they will tell you.

@BuggerBognor
Fucking cheeky bugger

@BuggerBognor

EYFS is a job creation scheme for early years workers (plenty of whom do not even have “emerging” levels of literacy). Those scores are best laughed at, then filed in the bin.

The lack of respect for early years workers, as evidenced above, is astonishing

I've got a first class degree from University of Warwick. And I work in Early Years! I wish I had done when my kids were little.

I’ve got a degree too @MerryMarigold

@BuggerBognor
Nobody is “ranking” or “scoring” children
It’s a tool for checking learning and development against the curriculum
Shame you have no idea what you are talking about

There's no 'ranking'. 'Tracking' yes and it's actually quite useful to warn of any possible learning issues early on (which can then be assessed by a professional in the relevant field). I'm assuming you have some respect for speech therapists. Or maybe you're the type to have very little respect for anyone.

Insancerre, there's 2 of us with degrees where I work in a team of 6. And it's not even a school!

@MerryMarigold
Most settings have at least one member of staff with a degree
It’s very rare to find a setting where a level 3 is the highest qualification

Incredibily offensive and unnecessary commenting on EY workers literacy skills. I'm presuming by that comment that you don't work in EY and thank goodness as you clearly don't have the right skills to be a caring or supportive person for children.

I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for my post to cause such negativity!

Thank you so much for your help. It’s realty put my mind at rest.

EYFS is assessed in age bands. If your daughter is 3.5 then she might have been exceeding in the 22- 36m band and has moved into the 30-50m band. Different setting use different terminology but in general there is an emerging, developing and secure level within each band.

There isnt any exceeding or merging in EYFS with the exception of the EYFS end of reception leaning goals.

Some people wrongly use Development matters to create a hierarchical progression structure and allocate emerging, expected and exceeding to the age bands. This is meaningless and not part of EYFS

The new Development Matters and early learning goals to be introduced in September will stop this. There is no longer exceeding at end of reception and it is very clear that the 2020 Development Matters should not be used in this way.

So relax and ignore it all.

Thanks so much for your comments

Yes the EYFS may not be fit for purpose and its being reviewed but it was was unnecessary and rude to insult EY worker literacy skills hence why so many people responded to you in that way.

The EYFS grading is a tool. It is used to identify which areas a child may need support with or areas where they exceed. The majority of children will fit in the typical age bands but some children wont. Because it's a tool it is used along side the practitioners knowledge of the child and their knowledge of what is typical for children of that age. It helps flag significant concerns and particular strengths so that learning and activities can be targeted to best help individual children develop in a way that suits them.

Early years workers are professionals who do significant amounts of CPD training to ensure they are doing all they can to teach and support the children in their care.

@Tumbleweed101

The EYFS grading is a tool. It is used to identify which areas a child may need support with or areas where they exceed. The majority of children will fit in the typical age bands but some children wont. Because it's a tool it is used along side the practitioners knowledge of the child and their knowledge of what is typical for children of that age. It helps flag significant concerns and particular strengths so that learning and activities can be targeted to best help individual children develop in a way that suits them.

Early years workers are professionals who do significant amounts of CPD training to ensure they are doing all they can to teach and support the children in their care.

That isnt correct

Development Matters is non statutory guidance that shows the broadly typical journey that most children take from birth to 5. It is not strictly hierarchical - some children on very standard trajectory can most closely match differing broad age ranges. The age bands overlap for that very purpose- to show there is not a straight hierarchal age based path.

It DOES not have anything about exceeding in it and never has.

The only exceeding is in the end of reception early learning goal and the exceeding within that is now part of Development Matters.

Some LAs. private companies, nursery chains. MATs have taken the age bands and split the statements into emerging expected or exceeding or below in line above or some other nonsense. This is not standardised across the country and it not moderated in any meaningful way. So emerging on 1 tracking system in 1 nursery could be expected for even exceeding at the nursery next door.

Development Matters was NEVER designed as a tracking tool for attainment. Using it as such first appeared in an Ofsted document in 2008 on using performance data where they suggested that a pupil entering nursery would typically be working at XX and one entering reception would typically be working at YY. This line in the sand was not based on any evidence, there is not and never has been any viable data collected to show where most children are the term after the term in which they are 3 or at the start of reception.

The use of the Development Matters in this way was by Ofsted was a very big surprise to the people who had written Development Matters.

Typo-sorry

The only exceeding is in the end of reception early learning goal and the exceeding within that is NOT part of Development Matters.