This week our Reception team have been on a moderation day for the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. This provides us with an opportunity to share our curriculum and professional teacher assessment judgements with other settings and compare and analyse against national standards. It gives the opportunity for teachers to share and discuss children’s learning, look at trends in gender and talk about the focus areas for the year – writing and reading standards, as well as explore and share ideas about how we can all provide opportunities for an outstanding taught programme in the early years.
Our data is always higher than national average and Somerset averages. The 2016/17 end of year Early Years Profile data really demonstrated the impact of an outstanding Nursery and excellent opportunity through our creative curriculum and specialist teacher programmes.
Nationally, children reaching a good level of development by the end of Reception was 70.7% of children, an increase of 1.4 percentage points (ppts) on 2016.
The same trend was seen in the percentage achieving at least the expected level across all early learning goals. This has increased by 1.7ppts from 2016.
The average total point score has remained the same as 2016 at 34.5.
Somerset reported 71% of the children attaining a good level of development, an increase from 68% last year and Taunton School Reception children’s results were 100% attaining a good level of development with many exceeding in all areas. This bodes well for the future as children who start with a positive attitude to learning and strong foundations underpinning their reading and writing will go on to be high attainers and achievers. However, there will be dips and plateaus along the journey and although we like to analyse the data and track their progress, at the end of the day every child is unique, every child needs to be involved in active learning and needs a holistic approach. Who knows at this early age what special talents they may have? It is the breadth of opportunity and the specialist provision that really makes a difference at this age alongside the loving care and nurture our children receive. Thank you for your partnership in this journey.
I love the data and analysis, however, it is only useful if it’s used to inform next steps and hone in on children’s learning. I hope you find this interesting and if you want to discuss this further my door is always open for more in depth discussion.
Kathy McLauchlan, Head of Nursery and Pre-Prep
