Everyone who is reading this article already knows that the earliest years are critical for young children. When we succeed in giving every child the best start, we give them what they need today, and we set them up with every chance of success tomorrow.
The greatest strength of the early years workforce is that we understand and act on this positive view of early childhood. That’s very different from how things were when I trained as a teacher of children aged three to seven. Then, the early years were often spoken about as an unimportant phase in a child’s life and learning. It was the phase before ‘real learning’ began.
We can be very proud of the great improvements made in the early years over the past three decades. But there is still a lot for us to do, if we want every child to flourish.
Across every part of the early years system, we need a new deal to ensure adequate funding. We also need to improve the quality of both initial qualifications and of ongoing professional development.
Since 2012, the current version of the Early Years Foundation Stage, including the Development Mattersguidance, has played an important role in supporting those improvements. But, eight years on, it is important to recognise that some changes are needed.
The revised 2021 EYFS framework and Development Matters have been published now to give schools and settings a year to plan for the changes, recognising that sometimes the pace of change is too fast in the early years.
REDUCING WORKLOAD
One of the key challenges in early years over the recent period has been the unsustainable growth in workload and pressure, in part linked to the practice of using Development Matters as a way of tracking each child’s progress and collecting ‘data’ on them.
The new guidance sets out some of the ways that we can work together in the sector to tackle this problem with workload.
Looking at the ‘big picture’
The revised Development Mattersis around 20 per cent shorter and is intended to support practitioners in thinking about the ‘big picture’ of a child’s development and learning.
Most children will make sound progress, given favourable circumstances at home and in their setting, so it is not necessary to track lots of examples of their learning and progress.
In fact, the work involved in doing that can damage practitioners’ well-being. It can stop practitioners from spending time with the children and helping them to learn new things.
Assessment ‘checkpoints’
The new Development Mattershas ‘checkpoints’ for children in the Prime areas of Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, and Physical Development. Settings might usefully use these to help them notice children who may need extra help. In other words, whilst the extent of the ‘tracking’ that goes on in some settings should be reduced, we mustn’t throw out the baby with the bath water. We need to notice quickly if a child may be having difficulties with their development, and we need to take action promptly.
A balanced approach
These checkpoints are best seen as indicative, not definitive. Jemima Rhys-Evans, deputy head teacher at Charles Dickens Primary School, south London, helpfully calls them ‘checkpoints not checklists’ and points out that they should support, not replace, professional judgement.
For example, experienced practitioners and teachers may not need to refer to them at all in order to identify which children might need extra help with their development and learning. But newer practitioners may find them a useful guide to what to expect, when, in the Prime areas.
It’s also important to combine practitioner judgement with parental knowledge. Sometimes, understanding the bigger picture of a child’s development can allay our concerns. A child might struggle with something in their setting, but be perfectly confident at home – for example, they may be very quiet at nursery but very talkative with family and friends at home. We should not rush to judgement or raise undue concerns.
It’s also important to remember that every child is entitled to a broad and balanced early years curriculum. So, we shouldn’t focus our efforts narrowly on those checkpoints.
Where children might be experiencing difficulties, it is important to spend time observing them closely and reflecting on what we notice. That way, we can get to know their strengths and interests, and develop a strong relationship with their parents. That helps us to give them the extra support they need to thrive.
Sometimes it might be appropriate to use a much more in-depth approach to assessment than the brief guidance offered in Development Matters. For example, if you are worried about a child’s communication, you might choose to use the free ‘Universally Speaking’ assessment tool developed by the Communication Trust. This can help us to find out whether the child might need specialist help.
A DIFFERENT FORMAT
The age bands are broader
The revised guidance is also formatted differently. Whereas children’s development was broken down into quite small bands in the previous document, it is now broken down into three larger bands:
- birth to three
- threes and fours
- fours and fives (Reception year).
There are two reasons for this. First, the guidance responds to the findings of the DfE’s 2017 consultation on assessment, that many practitioners wanted specific guidance for the Reception year.
Secondly, children’s development in their early years, especially birth to three, can’t sensibly be broken down into so many small bands.
Children’s development is very variable: it looks more like a spider’s web than a straight line. It is important for the guidance to reflect that, and encourage practitioners to see the unique development of each young child.
Does it make sense, for example, to state what babies from birth to 11 months are learning in maths, and then again for eight to 20 months, 16-26 months and so on?
In practice, this banding is sometimes misinterpreted. Practitioners might feel under pressure to make sure children move from one band to the next, to show progress. The new guidance makes clear it is more important to focus on depth in learning, rather than trying to cover a lot, or move children from one band to the next.
Aspects of learning are threaded together
The guidance also threads together the different aspects of development under the seven areas of learning and development, rather than separating it out.
For example, Communication and Language is no longer broken down into the three different sections of ‘Listening and Attention’, ‘Understanding’ and ‘Speaking’. That way, you can use it to help you take in the ‘big picture’ of a child’s developing communication, rather than needing to switch between three different sections.
The Early Learning Goals have been removed
The other major change to the format is that the Early Learning Goals have been taken out of Development Matters. That decision was taken because of concerns that the whole early years phase can be dominated by ‘top-down’ pressure driven by the goals.
In some Reception classes, the goals dominate the whole year, with teachers starting the year by setting up their systems to record evidence of children achieving these outcomes. Instead, the goals are now understood as an assessment checklist. They should be assessed carefully but without taking up undue time towards the middle of the summer term in the Reception year.
We need to focus on children’s deep learning, rather than on getting them to ‘jump through the hoops’ of the ELGs. It is important to check that their learning is secure at each stage rather than focus too early on an endpoint.
When you read the Mathematics section of the new document, you will see how it clearly sets out the different aspects of learning to count. That will support practitioners in understanding how tricky this is for children.
We can help children by noticing the mathematical aspects of their play, and extending their thinking as we play with them. We can also help them through guided play and direct teaching, giving them extra help in areas they might be finding difficult.
It is so important to be engaged and responsive with the children, rather than feeling under pressure to note down lots of written information. Too often, children move through their primary schooling without securely understanding the foundational concepts of counting and operating with maths. It is important that we are not hurrying children on: we need to give them plenty of time to repeat, practise and get a real ‘feel’ for the ‘fiveness of five’.
A RENEWED FOCUS: THE LEARNING GAP
One very clear challenge we face is that disadvantaged children are still falling behind the majority by the end of the EYFS. That gap represents more than four months in children’s development.
There are many, complex reasons behind this stark statistic. But we know that one of the factors which can make a positive difference is high-quality early education and childcare. Tackling inequality is central to the update of Development Matters.
We need to trust the professionalism of the workforce to achieve this. For this reason, one of the strongest messages in the new guidance is that practitioners should focus where they can make the biggest difference. That means spending more time playing with children. It means making more time to listen to children and have conversations with them. It means spending more time on developing respectful partnerships with parents.
Avoiding a deficit approach
There is a tightrope we need to balance on between identifying children who are having difficulties and taking a ‘deficit’ approach. The new guidance states that ‘every child can make progress, if they are given the right support’.
It is essential that we value every child we work with as a unique individual, and we are confident that they can do well in our setting.
There is considerable evidence from the school sector that teachers’ perceptions of children hold a strong influence over those children’s outcomes. If teachers do not think a child will do well in their class, it is quite likely that they won’t. That is likely to be true in the early years, too.
Making strong progress
But just having faith in children’s capacity to learn and make progress isn’t enough. For example, if a child has not benefited from many early experiences of stimulating conversation and language, they are going to need our help quickly.
One of the eye-catching findings from our recent project as a Research School to support children’s early communication was how easily ‘quiet’ children can slip through the net.
If they don’t talk much, they may not get involved in many conversations in their early years setting. Very quickly, a large gap can emerge between the children who have been involved in lots of conversations at home, and those who haven’t. But when we take positive actions, we can rapidly make a difference and help all children to become confident and skilled communicators.
In other words, when we identify a child as needing more help with their communication, we mustn’t assume there is something ‘wrong’ with the child – the ‘deficit’ view. Instead, we need to see the child as needing temporary extra help, and as being just as capable of making strong progress as any other child.
Sticking to the theme of communication, most speech and language delay is temporary, and with the right support children will thrive. But providing that extra support is also important as a way of identifying those children who need more specialist, longer-term help. So, if children get extra help, but that help doesn’t make a positive difference after a reasonable timeframe, then it is very important to refer them to Speech and Language Therapy.
When we fast forward, we see that many adults who struggle in life are people whose need for long-term support with their communication wasn’t picked up and acted on.
IN COLLABORATION
In updating Development Matters, I was privileged to work collaboratively with the Newham Early Years Hub. The hub is funded by the Mayor of London and includes more than 100 settings from the PVI, childminder and maintained schools sectors.
The voices of those practitioners have shaped the final document, together with feedback from nearly 200 practitioners and experts.
One issue that kept recurring in the many meetings and discussions about the new guidance is the importance of settings developing their own approach to the curriculum they offer, using Development Matters to support this.
DEVELOPING YOUR CURRICULUM
It is so important for childminders and practitioners in schools and settings to understand their local communities, and the children on roll. That helps us as we set out our curriculum, outlining how we will support children’s learning, and what we want children to know and be able to do. For example, at the nursery school I lead, more than 90 per cent of the children are learning English as an additional language. Most start with us at very early stages.
We know that in the long term, being multilingual is a huge asset for the children. Most of the world’s children are multilingual, too. That is why our curriculum has such a strong focus on supporting children’s communication in both their home language, and English.
The enabling environments we create in the early years are an important part of that curriculum. With a high-quality environment for care and learning, we can choose when to step back to support high-quality play and when to get involved in children’s play sensitively and extend it.
Play which is freely chosen by children is a crucial element in high-quality early years provision. In addition to this, children benefit from guided learning in playful activities and we directly teach children new skills and concepts.
Development Matters is there as a backdrop, offering guidance and support. For it to work like that, we need confident practitioners who have a secure understanding of child development.
TRAINING
In the year ahead of the revised EYFS framework becoming statutory for everyone, I think it will be important for settings to plan and begin to offer professional development that many practitioners need in addition to their qualification.
PACEY, for example, is already supporting practitioners with free online training and development through its EY Smart programme. During the year, I’ll be working with them to expand EY Smart, with a specific focus on the new guidance. (For more on CPD, see pages 42-43.)
EQUAL LIFE CHANCES
But if I have to state one priority, it is this: nothing is more important than promoting better and more equal life chances for every single child. We have seen how the impact of Covid-19 has been dreadful in every neighbourhood.
It has been even more devastating for many black and ethnic minority communities. We are hearing powerful messages about racism and inequality from campaigning groups like Black Lives Matter.
Many practitioners and leaders, like me, must become more aware, learn more, and understand better. As a sector, we need to be more effective in addressing equality issues. We need to tune up our professionalism and commitment: every child must benefit from the best possible early education and care.
REVISED EYFS GUIDANCE: Development Matters
Development Matters: Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stagewas published last month. This revised guidance includes:
- an overview of seven key features of effective early years practice
- tables setting out the pathways of children’s development. These cover the three Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning and seven areas of learning, and have broader age bands.
The guidance is at: https://bit.ly/2Fpxt5c
Seven key features
The seven features of effective practice are:
- the best for every child
- high-quality care
- curriculum
- pedagogy
- assessment
- self-regulation and executive function
- partnership with parents.
More information
These seven features:
- will be expanded upon in The Revised Early Years Foundation Stage: Principles into Practice by Dr Julian Grenier (available in early October at: http://development-matters.org.uk)
- are summarised in this month’s poster
- will be developed by Dr Grenier in a Nursery World series of articles, starting in our November issue.
A CHANGE OF FOCUS AND AMBITION
Communication
The new guidance aims to increase our focus on communication in the early years. Communication underpins so much of children’s learning, both in the early years and later on in their schooling.
It is vital that we all prioritise listening to children, and having conversations with them. The updated Development Mattersgives some clearer guidance on what to expect in a child’s communication skills, drawing closely on expert input from I CAN, the communication charity.
Physical development
The new guidance is very ambitious about children’s physical development, giving a wide range of suggestions for challenging experiences and environments.
There has clearly been a problem with this area of learning for some time, with more than 90 per cent of children judged to reach the ELGs in Physical Development at the same time as there are increasing signs of concern about young children’s health, fitness and strength.
Science and technology
The distinct section on Technology has been removed, on the understanding that children now have very high levels of access to ICT such as phones and tablets.
Instead, ICT is understood as a way that children may record and develop their play and thinking, switching fluidly between first-hand and on-screen experiences.
And there is more guidance on a broader range of early scientific learning.
NW CONFERENCE AND SHOW
Dr Julian Grenier will be talking about the revised EYFS guidance at our online conference (9-12 November) and Show masterclass (5 February). For programmes and to register, visit:
Dr Julian Grenier led on the revision of Development Matters for the Department of Education. He is head teacher of Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre, east London, which is a Research School.