Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

• Penn Green online training sessions - recordings of online training addressing the most common concerns of providers when implementing the EYFS 2021, including sessions on Observing to understand children, Managing change with your team and Planning the curriculum - Communication and Language.
• Foundation Years webinar and vodcast - with speakers from the Department for Education and the National Children’s Bureau.
• Early Years Foundation Stage Profile - videos for practitioners assessing children’s development at the end of the EYFS.
• EYFS 2024 regulatory changes - video discussion of the reforms to the EYFS which came into place in January 2024.

• The Birth To 5 Matters website has a range of information and research to support you to reflect on and develop your learning environment, including links to documents such as Learning, playing and interacting and a section on learning environments.
• Role of the adult in the learning environment (PDF, 178KB) - Guidance to help adults engage with children and support their learning throughout the early years setting.
• Help for early years providers: Interactions - Supporting the development of effective interaction skills with young children.
• Community Playthings training resources - Free learning resources which can support and develop learning environments and the experiences offered to children.
• Inspiring Environments - Toolkit, developed by PACEY, for practitioners to develop an environment that supports children’s well-being, learning and development.

There are additional tools on other sections of our website to support you to reflect on and develop your learning environment, including an Accessibility Audit and the Quality Improvement Criteria.

Practitioners are required to monitor children’s progress and to support their development. The EYFS is clear that “Assessment should not entail prolonged breaks from interaction with children, nor require excessive paperwork.

Ongoing assessment of children’s learning and development enables practitioners to support each child’s development and to share information with parents and other practitioners. There is a range of tools that practitioners may use to support their assessment of children within the early years environment.

When a child is aged between two and three, practitioners must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the prime areas.

Where possible, the progress check and the Healthy Child Programme health and development review at age two (when health visitors gather information on a child’s health and development) should inform each other and support integrated working.

• Help for early years providers: Integrated reviews - Government guidance on completing the two year review in early years settings.
• Development Matters 2021 - National, non-statutory, guidance to support practitioners and children through their development within the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Birth To Five Matters - National, non-statutory, guidance to support practitioners and children through their development within the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• OPAL (Observation of Play and Learning) - An assessment tool developed by the Barnet Early Years Alliance designed to make observation and assessment more meaningful to children and adults.
• EYFS Progress Check at age 2 - Information and examples for completing the statutory 2-year-old assessment.
• Cohort monitoring (group progress) tracker (Excel 75KB) - Optional tool to support leaders and managers in monitoring the progress of groups of children within the setting to inform practice and provision and ensure best outcomes for all children.

Additional assessment tools

Some children, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, may make smaller steps in some areas of learning and practitioners may find other assessment tools supportive in monitoring this.

The following tools may support you in identifying and supporting children with delay in their learning and development:

• West Sussex speech and language monitoring tool (PDF, 33KB)
• Early support developmental journal can do cards
• Solihull approach - Developmental and emotional milestones
• Wellbeing and involvement in care - Information on the Leuven Wellbeing and Involvement scales, focusing on how children access and engage with learning throughout the environment.

Learning Journal

• Learning Journal (PDF, 523KB)
• Learning Journal (Word, 457KB)
• Learning Journal: guidance notes (PDF, 177KB)

Action plan

• Improvement plan (Word, 54KB) - Optional tool to support leaders and managers to implement quality improvement plans and to review the impact of changes made.

Self evaluation

• Quality improvement and leadership resources - Birth To 5 Matters - resources to support leaders and managers to review the quality of practice within their setting.
• Overview audit of learning environment (Word, 55KB) - Template to help you review your current learning environment and plan improvements.
• Quality improvement criteria (PDF, 423KB) - A tool to support providers in self-reflecting on the quality of their provision.
• Setting improvement plan template (Word, 157KB)