Assessment is at the heart of effective early years practice. It plays a vital role in ensuring parents, carers and practitioners recognise children’s levels of development and progress over time. Through ongoing assessment, practitioners will grow to understand children’s levels of achievement, interests and learning styles. They will then be able to plan relevant and appropriate learning experiences for each child.

Assessment should not entail prolonged breaks from interactions 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. When a child’s learning is embedded and secure, they are likely to demonstrate what they know and can do consistently, independently and in a range of situations.

Barriers to learning

For those children who are not progressing or accessing your curriculum, you may have to observe more to identify barriers to learning and then decide how to address them. Persistent learning and development needs should be addressed between parents/carers and any other relevant professionals. Parents and carers must be kept up to date with their child’s progress.

Assessing children with SEND

Many SENCOs may find it challenging to identify current development and track the progress of children with SEND within the revised framework. We encourage all settings to use a range of resources to help them accurately identify where a child is in their development (link to the child development section). While not a statutory requirement, SENCOs may feel that for children with SEND, the bands remain a helpful measure of progress and while not required for all children, you might want to continue to use a range of resources which reference age bands to support you in your role. If settings feel that using a band system is beneficial, they are welcome to continue to use it. If they feel an alternative method of recording progress is better for their setting, the new framework allows flexibility.

Suggested reading about changes to assessment under the Revised EYFS (2025)

Useful Resources:

• • Observation in the Early Years
  • Assessment for Early Years Providers
  • Assessment Audit Tool to self-evaluate your processes
  • EYFS Assessment Guidance
  • A flowchart to support leaders in using relevant data effectively. This was first published in the National Strategies Progress Matters guidance.
  • Best start in life: a research review for early years - GOV.UK
  • Strong foundations in the first years of school - GOV.UK

Practitioners working with children aged between two and three must review their progress and provide parents with a short written summary of their development in the prime areas. Where any weaker areas of development are identified, settings should discuss how they will support the child.

Where applicable, practitioners can signpost parents to a range of information and support services including health visitors, the Family Support Service, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy. Health visitors also carry out health and development reviews for children aged two. It is vitally important that parents know about the different checks available and what they offer.

The EYFS (2021) states that

'2.4. When a child is aged between two and three, practitioners must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the prime areas. This progress check must identify the child’s strengths, and any areas where the child’s progress is less than expected. If there are significant emerging concerns, or an identified special educational need or disability, practitioners should develop a targeted plan to support the child’s future learning and development involving parents and/or carers and other professionals (for example, the provider’s Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) or health professionals) as appropriate.'

'2.5. Beyond the prime areas, it is for practitioners to decide what the written summary should include, reflecting the development level and needs of the individual child. The summary must highlight: areas in which a child is progressing well; areas in which some additional support might be needed; and focus particularly on any areas where there is a concern that a child may have a developmental delay (which may indicate a special educational need or disability). It must describe the activities and strategies the provider intends to adopt to address any issues or concerns. If a child moves settings between the ages of two and three it is expected that the progress check would usually be undertaken by the setting where the child has spent most time. Practitioners must discuss with parents and/or carers how the summary of development can be used to support learning at home.'

'2.6. Practitioners should encourage parents and/or carers to share information from the progress check with other relevant professionals, including their health visitor and the staff of any new provision the child may transfer to. Practitioners must agree with parents and/or carers when will be the most useful point to provide a summary. Where possible, the progress check and the Healthy Child Programme health and development review at age two (when health visitors gather information on a child’s health and development) should inform each other and support integrated working. This will allow health and education professionals to identify strengths as well as any developmental delay and any particular support from which they think the child/family might benefit. Providers must have the consent of parents and/or carers to share information directly with other relevant professionals.'

Progress Check at age 2 - DfE Guidance

The DfE have produced non-statutory guidance to support early years practitioners complete the Early Years Foundation Stage progress check at age 2. The guidance informs, supports and offers suggestions. It does not replace the professional judgement of practitioners. It should be read alongside Development Matters which sets out how children develop and learn.

Top Tips for 2 Year Olds

Useful Websites

• • Family Support Service 
  • Health Visitors in Buckinghamshire – Contact Details
  • Speech and Language Therapy in Buckinghamshire
  • Occupational Therapy in Buckinghamshire

Useful Resources

Information sharing process for EYFS 2-year-old progress checks and Health and Development Review at 2 – 2 ½ years

The EYFS Profile is explained in detail in the EYFS Statutory framework on pages 19 and 20.

The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) summarise the level of development children should be expected to have attained by the end of the EYFS. “Practitioners working with children below reception age do not need to use the ELGs as, for the vast majority of children, the EYFS Profile will be carried out by their school teacher at the end of the reception year.” p.11. ELGs are for assessment purposes – a quick, precise, ‘low stakes’ end point measure. The ELGs are on pages 12 to 16 of the EYFS Statutory framework. 

The ELGs should not be used as a curriculum but used as an assessment of child development during the summer term of the reception year.

Exemplification Materials

The DfE has published exemplification materials to provide support for schools when completing the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) assessment for children at the end of reception year. These are a collection of case study videos that demonstrate teachers and leaders having professional discussions about individual children’s development and their EYFSP judgements.

Links from the Department of Education

• • Early years foundation stage profile handbook - GOV.UK
  • Exemplification materials 
  • EYFS Profile Assessment supporting information for case study videos

Useful resources

• • Early years foundation stage profile handbook - GOV.UK
  • Windscreens for year 1 transitions

Headteachers, leaders and managers need to step back from the detailed day-to-day focus on individual observation and assessment and undertake periodic, systematic reviews to see how well children are learning and developing across all areas of the EYFS.

To understand children’s progress, settings should consider a system for channelling the wealth of information gathered about individual children into a manageable summary. A cohort summary can be used to evaluate the percentage of children that are on track or are working towards being on track and to consider the progress made by identified groups, e.g.  the difference in achievement between disadvantaged children and the non-disadvantaged children. The summary information can be organised into the seven areas of learning.

At each summative assessment point, consider the percentage, number or proportion of children who are accessing and progressing through the setting’s curriculum and meeting child development milestones and those who are not. For children or cohorts who are achieving beyond the expected level, consider opportunities for deeper and secure learning that includes application rather than learning more information.

Cohort progress can be described as the increase in percentage of children working at a typical level of development for their age and beyond across the year. This must also be considered for specific groups e.g. children who are eligible for a Pupil Premium grant (2YO funding, EYPP, PPG) gender, White British, ethnic minorities, EAL, SEND, more able and talented children, summer born children, service families, Looked After Children, children from Gypsy and Roma heritage etc. The cohort groups that you use in your monitoring depends on the community of families who attend your setting.

It is vital to be able to articulate the progress of the cohort at points during the year. Children who are making less than typical progress must be identified, particularly those in vulnerable groups, and provision must be reviewed to support these groups in order to close the gap in attainment.

Cohort Groups

Children who are eligible for a Pupil Premium grant including:

• • 2YOF (two year old funding)
  • EYPP (Early Years Pupil Premium)
  • PPG (Pupil Premium Grant)
  • Gender
  • Children from ethnic minorities e.g. Pakistani, Indian, Romanian, Portugese, children from Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller groups Demographic groups e.g. White British
  • EAL (English as an Additional Language)
  • SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities)
  • MAT (More Able and Talented children)
  • Summer born children
  • Service Families
  • CP (Child Protection)
  • LAC (Looked After Children)
  • Children from Gypsy and Roma heritage etc.

Effective assessment requires practitioners to observe; look, listen and note. Knowing what to do with what has been observed and where to go next is dependent on a secure knowledge of child development. The following are examples of child development resources:

• • Mary Sheridan’s From Birth to Five Years – 4th edition – Ajay Sharma and Helen Cockerill (Routledge, 2014)
  • Early Years Development Journal – Council for disabled children
  • Portage SEND Best Practice Assessment Checklist
  • NHS Child development timeline
  • Ages and Stages Questionnaires
  • Pathways.org
  • I CAN’s Universally Speaking – The ages and stages of children’s communication development from birth to 5
  • I CAN’s Ages and Stages of Development Poster for C&L
  • I CAN’s Talking Point Progress Checker
  • SDQ – Strength and difficulties questionnaire is a behavioural screening questionnaire about 3 to 16 year olds
  • Early Movers – an online resource to help practitioners deliver physical development opportunities in the early years
  • DfE-Dingleys-Promise-assessment-guidance

EYFS Profile Support

EYFS Profile professional dialogue meetings will take place in April 2026, they will give those reception teachers completing the EYFSP for 2026 the opportunity to discuss the early learning goals as well as their judgements to ensure accuracy and consistency in EYFS profile. To book a place please click here

EYFS Profile support visits will be offered to all schools with a less than good Ofsted or a ECT.

Moderation

Statutory EYFS moderation in schools was removed as part of the EYFS reforms. However, schools and clusters of schools are encouraged to moderate together to ensure that judgements are consistent across the country.

'Moderation of EYFS profile assessments should be a collaborative process with colleagues. This supports the quality assurance of assessment judgements and provides a valuable opportunity for professional development. Within each school, teachers can informally agree assessment judgements with others, for example, discussing knowledge and understanding about a child’s development with other EYFS teachers or a year 1 teacher. This does not require collecting or recording unnecessary evidence'.

Early years foundation stage profile handbook - GOV.UK

If you have any questions about the EYFS Profile please speak to your Key Contact.