Learning and development - Print version

Guidance for Early Years Foundation Stage Practitioners

The purpose of Better Start

In order to have a clear overview of children’s progress in your setting, you need to bring together the wealth of information you will have gathered for the individual child into a manageable summary of progress. The purpose of Better Start is to help you record that summary.

The summary of the child’s learning and development should be based on a holistic view of the child. It will be a best-fit judgement that you make based on all the information you have gathered and know about the child.

Better Start is used to summarise the development of the child in relation to their chronological age band. This will be defined within the seventeen aspects in each of the seven areas of Learning and Development. The seven areas of learning should be used for guidance. Practitioners need to be very familiar with the Early Learning Goals and child development milestones in order to support the process of continuous assessment.

Better Start gives you the opportunity to enter summative assessment data four times throughout the year: Baseline, Autumn term, Spring term and Summer term.

As clearly indicated in the expectations of assessment within the Revised Early Years Foundation Stage (2021), child development is not linear and generic milestones must not be used as a tick list to track children’s progress. A best-fit judgement should always be made.

When are the tasks open?

The first task will be the Baseline assessment. This task will open at the beginning of September, at the start of each academic year and close in October. This will provide a baseline to identify where each child is within their learning and development in each of the seventeen aspects of learning. This can then be used to measure progress throughout each term and across the academic year.

If a child joins the provision after this task has closed, then the first task completed for that child will become their Baseline. Key workers should continue to closely observe any children joining the provision throughout the year, to ensure a baseline is established and recorded in order to accurately indicate progress.

The second task will be at the end of the Autumn term and will be open between November and December.

The third and fourth tasks are the Spring and Summer assessments and will open at the start of each term, closing towards the end of term.

Guidance for specific dates will be given in advance of the task opening.

What information should be used to form a best-fit judgement?

A best-fit judgement should be made using a wide range of information about a child’s learning and development. This information may include:

• Observations of the child across different areas of learning and in a range of situations, both indoors and outdoors
• Day to day interactions between the adult and child and the child with their peers
• Photographs / videos / children’s work
• Discussions with and information shared by parents and carers
• Discussions with other professionals involved with the child or family
• The format in which this information is kept will vary from provider to provider

Making a best-fit judgement

From this wealth of information, you will use your professional judgement to decide if the child is on track or not on track for each aspect of learning. As early learning is not linear, some children may be on track in some aspects of learning and not on track in others.

When forming a judgement about whether an individual child is at the expected level of development (on track), practitioners should use the information outlined above and draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement to come to a holistic best-fit judgement.

How to record and submit data

Better Start is located on the Coventry Early Years Provider Portal.

Over the academic year, there will be 4 summative data tasks to complete on the Better Start portal.

The following guidance demonstrates how to complete a task and download reports based on the summative data inputted.

1. Task One - Start of the Autumn term. This information will form a baseline for new children.
2. Task Two - End of the Autumn term.
3. Task Three - End of the Spring term.
4. Task Four - End of the Summer term.
   • 4.1. Please note - for Reception classes, the data submitted for Task Four will be used for the EYFSP.

Information gathered on the Better Start portal will allow you to track children’s progress over time.

Ensure that this type of data is covered within your privacy notice. If it is not currently, review and update your privacy notice as appropriate. Further, ensure that parents and carers provide their written consent for their child’s assessment data, this could, for example, be included within your induction information.

Once the Coventry Data Team open a task, the provider will receive an email notification.

This is when practitioners will be required to start entering children’s summative data.

Therefore, it is advised to continually gather formative data on children’s learning and development during the term, in preparation for each task opening.

Guidance for Early Years Practitioners

Stability is vital during children’s early years; however, change is unavoidable for many young children, and they will inevitably deal with emotional and environmental transitions before they reach school age. By managing and preparing for transition carefully, we can ease the process of adjustment, and reassure both children and their families.

In order to support this across the early years sector in Coventry, the Early Years’ Service has developed the ‘Coventry Early Years Transition Overview’. This will help strengthen relationships between providers and lead to a more focused and child-centred approach to all transitions.

The Coventry Early Years Transition Overview [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/download/7514/learning-and-development] is available online for all providers, either in a Word version or Excel spreadsheet.

Transitions for children may occur in many different forms such as:

• Early Years provider to a school
• Reception class to Year One class
• Childminder to an Early Years provider or school
• Between rooms with the same provider

Key considerations

• The Coventry Early Years Transition Overview should be comprehensively completed by the child’s allocated key person, overseen by a senior practitioner or manager, and signed to signify that all the information shared is accurate.
• In the case of a planned transition, all information should be transferred to the new provider, school or room, at least 5 working days prior to the child’s transfer. Where transition is unplanned, and this is not possible, information should be shared at the earliest point following admission.
• Information that is received should be used to plan the support for a child on arrival to the Early Years Provider or School.
• Information should not be used to refuse or delay the admissions of any child.
• It is important that providers work in partnership with parents, to obtain informed consent for children’s transition documents to be shared with the new provider. Informed consent means checking that the parent understands what information is being shared, why it is being shared, who it is being shared with, and what will happen to the information. Parents should also be encouraged and supported to contribute.
• The Coventry Early Years Transition Overview is designed to share all key information without breaching UK GDPR or confidentiality, and all practitioners must have due regard for UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
• Working in partnership with parents should already be well established and parents will be familiar with settings seeking consent for a range of aspects.

Safeguarding

• In the event of any safeguarding and child protection concerns, please arrange a meeting with the receiving provider’s Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• The GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 do not prevent, or limit, the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children and young people safe.

To effectively share information:

• Information can be shared legally without consent, if a practitioner is unable to, cannot be reasonably expected to gain consent from the individual, or if gaining consent could place a child at risk.
• Relevant personal information can be shared lawfully if it is to keep a child or individual at risk safe from neglect or physical, emotional or mental harm, or if it is protecting their physical, mental, or emotional well-being.
• The most important consideration is whether sharing information is likely to support the safeguarding and protection of a child.

Information sharing Advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers (July 2018 [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1062969/Information_sharing_advice_practitioners_safeguarding_services.pdf])

Additional documents and information to support transition should be included where applicable:

• Wider assessment records, e.g. Summative Assessment tracker
• 2-year check
• SEN Individual Education Plan (IEP)
• SEND information e.g. My Support Plan
• Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• Early Help Assessment (EHA)
• Health Visitor information
• Speech and Language Therapists, Sensory support
• Child Protection files including information on Child Protection Online Management System (CPOMs)

Transferring information securely

Please ensure that all information shared is securely transferred. It is recommended that the Coventry Early Years Transition Overview is password protected prior to transfer. The password should be sent in a separate email or shared via the telephone.

For further information regarding the retention and destruction of records please refer to the following documents:

• Retention and Destruction of Records Guidance [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/30758/retention-and-destruction-of-records-guidance]
• Retention of Records Form [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/28503/retention-of-records-form]