Pre-school Education: Standards
(asked on 7th January 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the policy paper entitled Plan for Change, published on 5 December 2024, CP1210, how she plans to measure good development for school readiness; whether she plans to use teacher-completed Early Years Foundation Stage Profiles to measure good development; and whether she plans to use all seven categories of Early Years Foundation Stage measurement.
Giving young children the best start in life is the foundation of the government’s Opportunity Mission. Children’s earliest years are crucial to their health, development and life chances.
The department has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile assessment by 2028.
The statutory EYFS framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure all children have the best start in life and are prepared for school. It requires that children be assessed against the EYFS profile in the summer term of the academic year in which they turn 5 years old.
The EYFS profile seeks to measure a child’s level of development to support their successful transitions into year 1 and to support parents, carers and early years educators to recognise children’s progress and understand their needs.
It comprises an assessment of the child’s outcomes in relation to 17 early learning goals across 7 areas of learning.
Children are defined as having a good level of development at the end of the EYFS if they are at the expected level for the 12 early learning goals within the 5 areas of learning relating to: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; and mathematics. This is the definition that will be used to measure progress on school readiness as set out in the Plan for Change.