Baseline Assessment The ELG’s Collecting and collating evidence Making end of Foundation Stage judgements and reporting those judgements

All reception practitioners baseline their class at the beginning of the academic year, this helps establish what the children know and what their next steps are. Until last year the way teachers did this varied, last year the government introduced 3 standardised Baseline testing providers (this may change again). At Greysbrooke this year we have used the CEM (Centre for Evaluating and Monitoring) baseline test from Durham University and will be using it again next academic year.

This baseline test involved me working on a 1-1 basis with the children in Reception working through a variety of tasks in a computer program. The tasks are non – threatening and child friendly and based on the Early Learning Goal outcomes and the development bands that lead up to them.

The results gained from the baseline along with other evidence collected within those first few weeks gives a clear picture about what each child can do and what they need to do next to reach the expected levels in all 17 Early Learning Goals at the end of the Foundation Stage. The children are assessed against development bands a typical child starting reception would usually be judged as exceeding in months or emerging in months depending on the age of the child. By the end of reception typical development is judged as reaching the expected level in the Early Learning Goal.

PRIME AREAS Personal, Social and Emotional Development * Making relationships * Self-confidence and self-awareness * Managing feelings and behaviour Physical Development * Moving and handling * Health and self-care Communication and Language * Listening and attention * Understanding * speaking SPECIFIC AREAS Literacy * Reading * Writing Mathematics * Number * Shape, space and measure Understanding of the world * People and communities * The World * Technology Expressive Arts and Design * Exploring Media and Materials * Being Imaginative

Formative Assessment On going formative assessment is at the heart of effective early years practise, we complete this by; Observe – we look at how the child plays and interacts with the other children and adults in their setting and we make notes that are recorded in their learning journals or on the iPad through the 2buildaprofile app. Assess – against the development bands in the development matters booklet judging where the child is and where they need to go next. Plan – use our assessments of the children to inform our planning letting us know what we need to do next to move the children on further. Summative Assessment At the beginning of their time in reception the children are ‘baselined’ giving us an idea of their starting point against the development bands. We use the CEM baseline tool from Durham University. At the end of Reception we use the assessments taken throughout the year to make a judgement against the early learning goals, which is then reported to you as parents. There is also an end of year assessment tool from CEM which we will use to help with out judgements.

These ‘ELG’s’ are where we expect children in Reception to be at the end of the academic year. In our assessment we talk in terms of the child being at the ‘expected level in the ELG’, ‘emerging in the ELG’ or ‘exceeding the ELG’. Below is an example of the reading ELG Reading: children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.

At the end of Reception it is a statutory requirement to complete an Early Years Profile for each child. A child is judged to make a Good Level of Development if he/she has reached the expected level in all 8 of the prime areas and also in reading, writing, number and shape space and measure. A judgement is made against all 17 ELGs and is submitted to the LEA. These are then reported to parents in the child’s school report.