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The Primary Review's latest interim reports have major implications for Early Years Foundation Stage assessment says Pre-school Learning Alliance

NEWS RELEASE

5 November 2007

The Primary Review's latest interim reports have major implications for Early Years Foundation Stage assessment says Pre-school Learning Alliance

The findings in the latest reports published by the Primary Review on Standards, Quality and Assessment, have implications for assessment in the early years which should be heeded in order for children to gain the greatest benefit from their early education and care says the Pre-school Learning Alliance, England’s largest voluntary sector provider of childcare.

Stephanie Mathivet, the Alliance’s Curriculum and Standards Manager said,

“We are particularly interested to read the Primary Review’s recommendation that assessments must be used in ways which ‘avoid high stakes being attached to the results by not using the purposes other than reporting on individual pupils’.

The Alliance believes that this has a significant implication for pre-school age children. From September 2008 all Ofsted registered settings and schools caring for children under five will be implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage, a statutory framework which encompasses learning, development and welfare requirements. As the child reaches the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, a summary of their learning and developmental achievements, the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, is completed by their early years practitioner.

The Alliance urges the DCFS to ensure that the Primary Review’s recommendation on assessment is applied to the EYFS Profile so that it is used solely for reporting on a child’s progress and not used for any other purpose such as target setting or league tables. We believe that a target setting approach, such as SATS testing for primary school age children, while helping schools and Local Authorities appear to be achieving, actually does so at the risk of not meeting children’s wider developmental needs.

The Alliance firmly believes that a child’s achievement is an individual process and they should not have pressure put on them indirectly or inadvertently to achieve targets as they filter down the line from Local Education Authority managers to headteachers, to nursery school teachers and then practitioners. We would therefore be concerned that a result of such target setting may be more formalised learning in order to achieve short term goals, which we would not consider appropriate at this early age.

Young children might appear to be learning by the measure of the targets simply because they are able to perform a task that meets one of the scales. But this does not guarantee that their understanding is contextualised or embedded – it may soon be lost. The personal and social cost of not embedding this understanding at such a crucial stage is, we believe, too high to be compromised.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Kate Summerside
Pre-school Learning Alliance
T: 020 7697 2502
Out of hours press calls: 07956 499621
E: Kate Summerside

Notes for Editors:

  1. The full Primary Review report is available at www.primaryreview.org.uk
  2. The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
  3. Through direct provision and its membership of 15,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
  4. For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website: www.pre-school.org.uk
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