Early Years Practitioner Guidance

It is a good idea to do a baseline assessment to get to know each child at the beginning of the year or when the child starts at the setting. It should cover all curriculum areas and allow you to get a good understanding of the child’s current learning and development. It is important to make a record of this assessment so that you can track progress during the year. If you repeat a similar process later in the year, then this can provide good evidence of progress.

Cambridge provides additional support for doing baseline assessments:

• When children enter EY1 you can use the approaches in the Transition to EY1 document to evaluate a child’s progress against milestones in their Physical development, Language and Communication development, Cognitive development and Social and Emotional development.
• For children aged 4-5 (EY2) you can use Cambridge Early Years Check Together. This is a computer-based assessment which quickly identifies what young children know and can do in a range of areas. Cambridge Early Years Check Together can be repeated at the end of EY2 for each child. Not only does this allow progress in EY2 to be identified, but it also supports planning for a smooth transition to EY3.

After doing a baseline assessment, you will continuously assess the children during each year, using the learning statements. Your ongoing record of their progress can also be used to provide evidence of progress and be summarised at the end of each year. These end of year summaries can be used to plan for a smooth transition to the next year of learning.