Measuring Progress in Early Years

Our Early Years practitioners use  Development Matters to support the early learning of  young children as part of daily observation, assessment and planning. It can also be used at points during the EYFS as a guide to making best-fit summative judgements. You will be involved in this assessment through our parent Tapestry portal.

The age/stage bands overlap because these are not fixed age boundaries but suggest a typical range of development. When looking at the Development Matters document, it is however important to remember that  young children develop at their own rates and in their own ways.

At the end of their first year in school teachers will judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the Foundation Stage for each Early Learning Goal and this will be reported to parents/carers as:

  • Emerging, not yet reached the expected level of development
  • Expected
  • Exceeding, beyond the expected level of development for their age