Assessment in the EYFS
Assessment in the EYFS
Assessment occurs continually within the EYFS. The practitioners observe the children's learning and respond to it to help them to support and extend the individual. Assessing in this way quickly helps us to make a difference to the children's learning.
Approximately every nine weeks, the class teacher will also make assessments using the school's assessment thresholds to analyse if a child is on track to meet the early learning goals at the end of the reception year. Children who are not on track will receive bespoke interactions or support to enable them to catch up quickly.
EYFS Baseline
What is the EYFS Baseline?
All children starting in Reception, participate in the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting school. The purpose of the assessment is to provide a measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between Reception and Year 6.
The RBA is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.
Children do not ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ the RBA. Its main purpose is to create a starting point to measure the progress schools make with their pupils. Your child’s class teacher can provide you with a short summary of how your child achieved in their baseline assessment.
Please click on the link for more information:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1074327/2022_Information_for_parents_reception_baseline_assessment.pdf
EYFS Profile
What is the EYFS profile?
The EYFS profile is sometimes known as the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. It summarises a child’s attainment at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), at the end of their Reception year. In September, the child will then move into Key Stage 1 as they enter their Year 1 class.
The EYFS profile summarises a child’s attainment against the Early Learning Goals (ELG’s). There are seventeen ELG’s across all the Areas of Learning. The Early Learning Goals are the expected levels of development for children working to achieve by the end of Reception. The ELG’s cover a range of skills that children will have been learning and practising throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage. You can see a list of the ELG’s here:
How will the profile be completed?
Reception teachers use their knowledge of what each child knows, understands and can do in order to decide the outcomes presented in the profile. They will also take into account the views of other people, including parents and carers, other members of staff and other agencies, such as childminders or speech and language teachers.
For each of the seventeen early learning goals, children will be awarded an outcome.
This will be either:
- ‘Emerging’ – the child is not yet reaching the expected level
- Expected’ – the child has reached the expected level
These outcomes will be shared with the child’s parents/carers and their Year 1 teacher. Remember, there is no need to worry if your child is given an emerging level for one or more of the goals. Children develop at different rates and the main purpose of the profile is to provide support for each child at the correct level as they continue through the school. The main purpose of the EYFS profile is to help create a smooth transition into year 1. The profile results will be shared and discussed with the child’s Year 1 teacher to enable them to plan activities to meet the needs of all children in the class and to develop an understanding of each child’s needs.
Please see the EYFS Profile handbook for more information: