DfE publishes Development Matters curriculum guidance, as early adopter schools start updated EYFS

The revised Development Matters curriculum guidance has been published to support the 2,800 schools that will be taking part as early adopter schools of the new framework from this term.

The revised EYFS becomes statutory for all early years providers in September 2021.

These early adopter schools will be able to use the new curriculum guidance, which was developed by Dr Julian Grenier, lead of the East London Research School and headteacher of Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre.

Early years providers and schools that are not taking part in the early adopter year may still choose to use the guidance, the DfE said, but will still need to use the existing EYFS framework until next September.

The non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS states that it has been written for all early years practitioners, childminders, staff in nurseries, nursery schools and nursery and Reception classes in schools.

The DfE said the guidance 'offers a top-level view of how children develop and learn, and guides, but does not replace, professional judgement.'

The introduction to the guidance states, ‘Development Matters sets out the pathways of children’s development in broad ages and stages. However, the actual learning of young children is not so neat and orderly. The main purpose of these pathways is therefore to help you assess each child’s level of development. Accurate assessment helps practitioners to make informed decisions about what a child needs to learn and be able to do next.

‘The document is not a tick list for generating lots of data. You can use your professional knowledge to help children make progress without needing to record lots of next steps. Settings can help children to make progress without generating unnecessary paperwork.’

It sets out the seven key features of effective practice as:

• The best for every child
• High-quality care
• The curriculum: what we want children to learn
• Pedagogy: helping children to learn
• Assessment: checking what children have learnt
• Self-regulation and executive function
• Partnership with parents

It includes three 'characteristics of effective learning', as:

• playing and exploring’ – children investigate and experience things, and “have a go”
• active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

For the three Prime areas (Communication and Language, Physical Development, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development) and the four Specific areas (Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design), the document gives examples of how to support children at different stages of their learning.

For each area of learning, the guidance suggests what children will be learning at different stages, from birth to three, three and four year olds, and children in Reception, with detailed examples of how practitioners can support children at each stage.

For example, under communication and language, it says that three- and four-year-olds will be learning to ‘use longer sentences of four to six words’. The example given of how to support this includes, ‘Expand on children’s phrases. For example, if a child says “going out shop”, you could reply: “Yes, Jason is going to the shop”.'

Children in Reception will be learning to 'Articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences'. Examples of support include: 'Use complete sentences in your everyday talk' and 'Narrate your own and children’s actions: “I’ve never seen so many beautiful bubbles, I can see all the colours of the rainbow in them."'

The document also includes ‘observation checkpoints’, which it says are ‘to help you to notice whether a child is at risk of falling behind in their development’ so that practitioners ‘can take action quickly, using your professional judgement and your understanding of child development. By monitoring the child’s progress more closely, you can make the right decisions about what sort of extra help is needed.’

Comments

Commenting on the guidance, Iram Siraj, professor of Child Development and Education at University of Oxford, said, ‘Although there is a statutory framework for the seven domains of the EYFS this Development Matters is a valuable and important starting point as non-statutory guidance. ‘Importantly it states that “it guides, but does not replace, professional judgement”. This is critically important in supporting and asserting that professional judgement is central to staff creating a contextually full and relevant curriculum and the right learning, teaching and well-being support for young children. 

‘The document supports the notion that how we support children is important and not just what we teach them. It provides central place to active learning, playing, exploring and developing a young child’s thinking capability. There are helpful examples of how practitioners can support children to learn within the context of high-quality care, individual attention, a creative curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. It provides a great foundation for managers, head teachers and pedagogic leaders in the early years to be creative, extend staff professional knowledge and support children by going beyond and above a basic curriculum.’

Helen Donohoe, PACEY's policy advisor, said the guidance would ‘form a crucial source of support and guidance as our members gear up to the launch of the updated EYFS in late 2021.’

However, some sector organisations have criticised the guidance.