Eyfs School Report Early Years Foundation Stage

homeliving · 9 July 2008 at 10:14AM

This seems so unfair to me,

bylromarha · 9 July 2008 at 10:36AM

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/faqs/foundation_stage/1145599/?subject=S_953489

it'll be around there somewhere.

Children aren't tested, they are observed as to what they can do. if they aren't seen doing it, it doesn't get marked. You can't , and shouldn't, ask a child to be an extrovert when it isn't their personality, just so they get a tick in the right box.

I shouldn't worry about it. the results are only used for statistical analysis of the school and how it's performing.

RustyFlange · 9 July 2008 at 10:48AM

My son is in reception and did not do any tests? he had his first school report on Friday. He is in the group above at everything on there which suprised me.

bunty109 · 9 July 2008 at 10:48AM

It isn't testing, so much as observation on how your child does things. He isn't compared to his classmates, but there's a set scale of things they are learning and they are marked according to how they can do them.

If your child is young for the year (summer baby) then it may well be he scored lower because of his age. It can take a while to "catch up" with the older ones. I think average scores are around 6.5. Getting 8s and 9s might mean your child would be on course for Level 3s in their Year 2 SATs but it is IN NO WAY a precise science because the Foundation Profiling doesn't fully align with the KS1 profile (btw this comes from my Governor work at school: I'm not a teacher so please don't take everything I say as gospel!).

From what you are saying, if his written comments were good and his marks weren't as you hoped, then he's doing well and likely to develop well academically. You can always pop in and talk to the teacher about the scores if you are worried, but I really don't think it's likely to be a case of your son not showcasing himself for the teacher: all children are observed and it's really unlikely your son missed out. The teacher might, however, be able to give you some thoughts as to why his test results weren't as you hoped (you don't say what he got though: they could be better than you think!)

cakemaker · 9 July 2008 at 12:23PM

I can't stand the thought of 4 and 5 year olds being tested. I just ignored the scores and indeed most of the comments on my sons report. I have a friend who is a foundation teacher who said they are meaningless at this stage, some kids don't respondvery well etc.

She said they should be enjoying school, reading a few words, drawing etc and PLAYING!!

Drives me mad all of this.

squashy · 9 July 2008 at 4:07PM

At our school these marks are never written on the reports, they are for internal use really, so that the y1 teacher gets an idea about them, so maybe put a less talkative child on a table with an outgoing one for example. Also useful if the child changes schools.

Not saying I agree with it as such, just trying to paint a picture!

Carmina_Piranha_3 · 9 July 2008 at 4:39PM

i wouldn't worry too much about it - your son sounds well behaved and pleasant, and that's important at that age

i remember my son at the end of reception - the teacher was worried about his low reading score, he could only manage 14 words out of the 45 reception words. i thought he was doing pretty well considering he was still 4 at the time, and had only started school ten weeks earlier because they let him stay in nursery for an extra term and go to school at easter.

in year 1 he made tremendous progress so his dats in year 2 were fine. by year 3 his reading tests scored the highest in all the year 3 kids so his slow start didn't do him too much harm.

lf846 · 9 June 2009 at 8:15PM

I am a reception teacher and have just had to complete these scores for all of my children. They are a very limited scale of points that we either tick or don't depending on whether the child has achieved them or not. They do not give a complete picture or fully represent some children as they are just 9 statements in each area of learning. They are used only for internal statistics, I would consider the comments much much more important. We also write individual reports and these are personal and represent the child.
Also just because your child has a numerical score does not mean they were 'tested'. All Early years assessment is based upon observations, my children have absolutely no idea that they have ever been assessed. It is all done through their play and playing games. While I agree that 4/5 is very young the children are not aware they are being scored and the score do not shape their education. Is it really worth getting upset about? The scores are only as important as you make them.

Janepig · 9 June 2009 at 8:58PM

Afaik they're not "tested" either. The OP is making it sound like her child has sat some sort of exam!!! And what I've been informed about the new early years curriculum - which has certainly come into being in Wales - is about children choosing what they want to do, with the emphasis very much on play. DD is in Year 1 and although the early years curriculum hasn't been compulsory for her age, her teacher is the lead teacher in the school on it, and as such they have adopted much of what it contains.

Anyway, my DD went to day nursery and also a welsh playgroup in the run up to starting full time school at 3 and both provided me with "reports" at the end of her time in both settings. I found them very useful as they let me know how she was progressing in those settings - obviously I didn't stay with her when she was there so it's nice to know how she's getting on. Particularly as she was (and still is) useless at telling me what she's been up to in school. She's had reports at the end of the nursery and reception years, as well as parents being able to meet with the teacher and it's never been anything other than a positive exercise. I'm quite sure they didn't have her sitting silently at a desk for two and a half hours completing a test paper :rolleyes:.

Jxx

Mojisola · 9 June 2009 at 9:24PM

It's not testing - it's setting a base line. How will you know that the school is helping your child if they haven't got a measure of what he was capable of when he arrived at school?

dizziblonde · 10 June 2009 at 9:58AM

They're not tested - they're monitored through the whole time, observations are done, things that crop up that are notable are written down and kept (so it might be stuff like "Johnny lined up all the teddies in the home corner and counted them 1-6" or things) and then every few weeks the poor reception teacher (I seriously don't envy them with the extra paperwork that's come in from this) will file all this stuff, collate it all and tick off where they are on the different areas. Lots and lots of watching where the kids are at when they're working on things independently or in groups - things like that. The stuff that goes on anyway when teachers are planning (but with added post-it notes everywhere) - most teachers will always write on their planning after lessons comments like "Freddie didn't quite get this, Johnny really got the hang of this and went on to numbers beyond 20 or whatever"... it formalizes that kind of recording a bit more. Even when "assessments" are being done - it's very low-key stuff. When I used to have reception it was back when we used to do baseline on entrance to reception - and it was reading a story together, watching if the child could point to where you'd start reading from, if they'd sussed out the funny squiggly black things on the page were what told you how to tell the story, moving numbers into order, can you put your name on that painting you've just done for me so I don't get them muddled etc... not sitting a little dot down in front of a test paper or anything like that!

Eyfs School Report Early Years Foundation Stage

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