in mind can help practitioners better support all children, says Dr Kay
Mathieson.
The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (2014) is clear that practitioners should know 'precisely' where each child is in their learning and development throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). However, this is only part of the story for children with SEN, in particular with record-keeping, which must show the chronology of events and actions.
Probably more than any other phase of a child's development, the EYFS is when many emerging needs are identified. When a child begins attending our setting, we have no way of knowing how their learning and development will progress. Our record-keeping must show what we are doing to support the child, as well as the progress they are making.
In addition, looked at over a period of time, documentation will present evidence of our thinking and decision-making. The detail of what we did, why we did it and what difference it made will be clear with parents' perspectives central to this process.
There is no blueprint or template for record-keeping that will work for every setting, practitioner and situation. Further, the danger is that our record-keeping systems become ever more onerous and complex, but lose sight of their purpose and usefulness.
In relation to inclusion, record-keeping is essential to show the chronology of early identification, interventions and impact on a child's learning and development. But this is important not just for children with identified SEN. Patterns of progress, strategies or approaches that have helped a child gain skills and confidence need to be available to inform planning and all practitioner interactions. The SEND Code of Practice gives us a useful opportunity to review, not just our record-keeping for children with SEND, but more holistically what we record, what we do with our records and to what extent we have one system for all children.
A useful starting point is to return to basics and consider the actual purpose of each of our current systems.
BACK TO BASICS
What is the purpose of our record-keeping?
- Holding collective knowledge in an accessible form.
- Showing rates and patterns of progress.
- Detailing the impact of our interventions and provision.
- Building a chronological record of events, interventions and changes in a child's learning, development and life.
Who is our record-keeping for?
- In our setting: children, parents, the key person, other practitioners, the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) and the leadership team.
- Beyond our setting: schools and other settings, health, social care and local SEND specialist practitioners, Ofsted and local authority practitioners.
How effective are your current systems?
Given this range of potential audiences, the development and continuous review of the effectiveness of our records needs to be checked regularly. We can only be certain about their effectiveness by getting direct feedback from those who receive our records. This is best as a two-way process, also giving constructive comments to others about the forms, format of information, timing and content represented in their communication with us. Some general guiding thoughts about format that may be helpful include the following:
- Different audiences do not need different formats if we are smart about the design.
- Knowing the audience and their constraints helps to make one format work for many purposes.
- All record-keeping should be in a form that makes sense to parents and professionals from other agencies.
- Avoid acronyms and jargon.
- Keep it simple, using 'at a glance' summaries complemented by more in-depth information where appropriate.
What does record-keeping do for children?
The major test for our record-keeping system is that it supports effective practice in improving the child's learning, development and daily experience. In essence, records we keep should build up a picture of a child's progress over time. But it is not just about collecting the information; we also need to use it wisely to inform our actions and responses. Therefore, the format needs to make it easy to identify patterns in learning and development - for example, times when there seems to be a plateau or a rapid acceleration in a child's progress.
If this information is easy to recognise in summary or 'at a glance', it gives adults a greater opportunity to reflect on and question the effectiveness of their different forms of support or approaches. Taking account of the child's characteristics of effective learning, recognising the importance of understanding how the child is currently engaging with their environment or the impact of significant developmental changes will often present challenges to our practice.
Our reflection on observations should highlight patterns in the child's changing understanding and thinking as well as acquiring skills and abilities. This 'at a glance' approach also makes it more likely that any emerging difficulty will be spotted as early as possible. Anomalies between rates of progress, particularly in the prime areas for example, would trigger at least further exploration and discussion with parents and carers.
How do we know if our record-keeping is working as it should?
A child's record should communicate the essence of the child and their story of attending the setting. A useful test is to hand a child's record to a colleague who knows least about the child. From reading the record, they should be able to give a verbal summary of the child's story with key highlights, characteristics of effective learning, current concerns and interventions. As a general rule, the following may be helpful to consider:
- Do not write/record anything more than once without exploring alternatives.
- Date everything.
- Use 'at a glance' summaries, for example one side of A4.
- Provide greater detail and in-depth information that is easily accessible to support summary information.
- Create easily accessible individual child records/information.
- Put together easily accessible information to compare progress of groups in the setting - for example, boys, girls, English as an additional language groups, summer-born, length/intensity of attendance (such as full-time for three years, or part-time for two terms).
- Compare progress across all children over previous five years in prime and specific areas.
Gathering information is only the first step. It is what you do with it that makes the difference. The questioning and analysis of the recorded data gives us evidence to inform changes to strategies, provision and planning and leads to quality improvement whether focused on supporting an individual, groups of children or specific improvements to the quality of our provision.
Exploring our records and noticing significant differences in trends of accelerated progress in communication and language, perhaps, or little progress in understanding the world, gives a context for understanding an individual child's progress or the impact of changes we have made.
Everyone who uses our record-keeping systems will have a view on how accessible, easy to understand and complete they are; engaging them all in reviewing and improving them will support a continually improving system.
What might our records look like?
For basic admission information, provide: name; date of birth; address; emergency contact, and; medical information. This may be useful to print as a label, so that it can be added to other documents when appropriate.
Building a picture over time about the child's story during their attendance at the setting might include:
- parental aspirations
- key information that needs to be taken account of during the 'settling period'
- ongoing observations from practitioners and parents
- next steps, linked to observations and evidence from practitioners and parents
- assess, plan, do, review cycle of support (see SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25)
- regular summary notes reviewing progress in prime areas, specific areas of learning, characteristics of effective learning and the child's views
- evidence of discussions with parents, sharing patterns of progress, and relevant key events in child/family life.
The cycle of assess, plan, do, review will provide a clear chronological record of agreed outcomes, interventions and intended impact along with the actual progress made in response to these actions. This process is fundamentally about the adults learning more about the child and their development. Therefore, reading the records sequentially will tell the story of what has triggered the support, its impact and evidence of the adult thinking and decision making about further action.
Exploring the local authority format for Education, Health and Care Plans will inform thinking about the format for record-keeping that is most effective for your setting.
Our record-keeping processes say a lot about the quality of provision; chaotic, incomplete and sparse records tell a very different story from ordered, informative, chronological, useful and often-referred-to records. The investment in thinking about record-keeping is also an opportunity to engage colleagues and parents in clarifying the key messages and ethos of your setting.
MORE INFORMATION
Autism Education Trust Person-Centred Planning Toolkit, available from www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk
Council for Disabled Children and 4Children SEN and Disability Toolkit available from www.foundationyears.org.uk
Identifying Special Educational Needs in the Early Years by K Mathieson (2007), Sage Publishing
Inclusion in Early Years by C Nutbrown and P Clough (2006), Sage
Inclusion in the EYFS by K Mathieson (2015), Open University Press
Person-centred planning information and tools, available from www.helensandersonassociates.co.uk
- SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years, Department for Education, Department of Health (2014), www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.