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.
• 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.

• 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.
• Learning, playing and interacting - Supporting the development of effective interaction skills with young children. 
• Enabling environments - Understanding the importance of the learning environment.
• Community Playthings training resources - Free learning resources which can support and develop learning environments and the experiences offered to children.
• Freedom To Learn Network - Resources and links for clips of inspirational learning environments for young children.
• Inspiring Environments - Toolkit to practitioners to develop an environment that supports children’s well-being, learning and development.

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.

When assessing whether an individual child is at the expected level of development, practitioners should draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement and should not be required to prove this through collection of physical evidence.”

The following tools may be used by practitioners to support their assessment within the early years environment to support each child’s development and to share information with parents and other practitioners.

• 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.
• Development Matters 2012 - National guidance to support practitioners and children through their development within the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• 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)
• Universally speaking
• Early support developmental journal can do cards
• The Communication Trust progression tools
• 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, 25KB) - Optional tool to support leaders and managers to implement quality improvement plans and to review the impact of changes made.

Self evaluation

• Challenging practice to further improve learning, playing and interacting in the EYFS - National strategy guidance to support leaders and managers to review the quality of adult interactions with children and develop practice within the setting.
• Overview audit of learning environment (Word, 26KB) - 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, 130KB)