Foundation Stage Profile data

Attainment on entry

Attainment on entry (birth to four)
By 2008 there will be a Children's Centre in every community, providing high quality integrated learning and care for all who want it. Children may start attending the setting shortly after birth. Children's Centres may be based on existing maintained schools or on private, voluntary or independent provision. The local situation may call for an extended school. For all these settings, the new inspection framework asks for judgements about attainment on entry. Age of entry will be any time from birth to the first term after the child's fifth birthday (statutory school age.) Children's Centres will need to form a view of attainment on entry based on the existing frameworks and the age and attendance of their children. Ofsted will, as always, be looking for implementation of the statutory requirements and impact:

The Foundation Stage Profile provides a useful benchmark of attainment by the end of the Reception Year. The Profile complements the wide range of evidence of children's progress collected on inspections. Inspectors are aware that baseline assessments are no longer required and will not expect schools to take a particular approach to an "entry assessment". Inspectors will, however, evaluate the contribution that assessment makes to the quality of teaching and learning and the progress made by pupils. They will also judge how effectively the Foundation Stage Curriculum is being implemented.

It is important to remember that OFSTED inspections focus on the effectiveness of provision. OFSTED does not require schools or settings to organise themselves in a particular way in respect of assessment, planning or any other aspect. Inspections, however, will note compliance with statutory requirements, such as implementation of the Foundation Stage Curriculum from September 2002 and, from June 2003, the completion and use of the Foundation Stage Profile for all children approaching the end of the Reception Year.

These points, taken from the 2002 letter from Ofsted to local authorities on the inspection of the Foundation Stage, remain the core reference for judgements about attainment on entry. In practice a setting may be using a practitioner's own assessment on entry system, the setting's system, the local authority approach, another local authority's approach or a commercial system – so long as the selected system conforms to the legislation (i.e. draws from Birth to Three Matters, and is based on the stepping stones and early learning goals). It is important to collect evidence about children through:

Observation;
Agreeing assessments on the basis of these observations;
Talking with parents and with the child;
Reviewing the records from previous setting(s) that the child may have attended for some considerable time.

Children may attend funded provision from birth, from statutory school age (the term after the child's fifth birthday), or at any point between according to parental choice. Attendance may be regular, periodic or episodic. The range of experience chosen by parents will profoundly affect the time spent in a funded setting. It is therefore most unlikely that a single national measure of attainment on entry could be devised. There are no additional current or planned national data collections upon which further statements about average, below average or above average attainment on entry to the Foundation Stage could be made.

Attainment on entry to a reception class
Most children's attainment will vary considerably across Birth to Three Matters, the six areas of learning and the 13 scales of the Foundation Stage Profile during the final year of the Foundation Stage. Progress will depend on their particular strengths and interests and the time they have spent in a funded setting. Progress can be tracked over the 3 terms in a reception class using the Foundation Stage Profile. It may not always be appropriate to do this. For example, where children are still working within Birth to Three Matters or the stepping stones.

The nearest equivalent to 'on entry' data would, in a school context, be the first term's assessment using the school or local authority system. Head teachers require this as a matter of course. Practitioners have to carry out this type of assessment to ensure that they are providing the appropriate learning and teaching experiences. The best early indicator for special educational needs in the early years is a child's rate of progress as indicated by the practitioners' own assessment for learning observations, informed by discussions with parents, carers and other professionals. It would be possible for a local authority to collect that assessment information from a sample of benchmarked schools and extrapolate this to create on local on-entry benchmarks for a group of schools.

From 2008, such systems will have to comply with the Early Years Foundation Stage. Use of such systems will generate prior data as their use continues. It is this data (local in all cases and often setting based) which can be used to generate statements about the current cohort for a particular school or local authority for an inspection.

Attainment at the end of the Foundation Stage
National data collection is at the end of the Foundation Stage through the Foundation Stage Profile. Local authority and national Foundation Stage Profile data is at present aggregated for national purposes. It details the number of scale points achieved in each scale but gives no information about which scale points have been achieved and which have not. It does not contain either scale point information or child level information. This level of data is held only at school level. Child level data is collected nationally through a 10% sample.

There are currently no plans for national data collection prior to the end of the Foundation Stage. Practitioner judgements about nationally expected levels may be made in the context of Birth to Three Matters and the stepping stones of The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. Some local authorities have long-established local systems to help practitioners assess children's attainment on entry to the Foundation Stage. These local authorities can generate locally appropriate judgements. These local judgements cannot be extrapolated nationally because of local socio-demographic factors. These judgements are based on the observation of everyday activities.