Headteacher’s Briefing EYFS Profile Moderation 2014

Subtitle/section break slide Click here to add your own text Subtitle/section break slide Click here to add your own text STA Updates on EYFS Profile

Purpose and use of the EYFS Profile  Primary purpose: to provide a reliable, valid and accurate assessment of individual children at the end of the EYFS  Primary uses of EYFS Profile data: To inform parents about their child’s development against the early learning goals (ELGs) and the characteristics of their learning To support a smooth transition to key stage 1 by informing the professional discussion between EYFS and key stage 1 teachers To help year 1 teachers plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will meet the needs of all children

How an EYFS Profile is completed

Core findings from EYFSP external moderation and evaluation events Strengths:  Handbook is clear, easy to navigate and find answers to queries, moderation responsibilities are clearly set out  Increased amount of internal and inter-school moderation  ‘Expected’ the easiest band to moderate due to exemplification  More reliance on practitioner knowledge during moderation  As practitioners become more acquainted with the characteristics of effective learning, this part of the profile will become easier to complete  Sample of children selected on the day using interim judgements

Main submitted areas for development These will not be considered until the outcome of the primary assessment consultation is known.  Further guidance and exemplification for children on the threshold between attainment bands  Further guidance and exemplification for SEN, EAL and children with speech and language issues  Revisit the exemplification to ensure a consistent pitch and coverage of each part of the ELGs  Further guidance and exemplification for the ‘exceeding’ and ‘emerging’ bands of attainment  Further guidance and exemplification for reading, writing and number

The moderation sample EYFSP Handbook, Page 31,Section 6.9  In single-form entry schools moderators will moderate 17 ELGs from one practitioner. The moderator will expect to see some ‘emerging’, some ‘expected’ and some ‘exceeding’ outcomes from across the five children.  In a multi-form entry school the moderator will ensure that all 17 ELGs are moderated across the sample from the school with at least one judgement at each of the three outcome levels from each practitioner within that sample.

Subtitle/section break slide Click here to add your own text Subtitle/section break slide Click here to add your own text Further updates from STA and Ealing

EYFSP Handbook handbook reflects current government advice and policy (references to ‘Development matters’ removed, however either tool can be used to make judgements on children’s progress) Consistency between EYFS Profile handbook and ‘Assessment and reporting arrangements’ Greater emphasis on discussing ‘exceeding’ in any ELG with year 1 teachers (page 12) Greater clarity in assessing ELG03 Speaking, which needs to be assessed as spoken word, not other established or preferred methods of communication, though these can be used to assess all other ELGs (page 14) Explanatory notes removed STA ppt of detailed changes, FAQ’s and Ealing’s QA process will be available on egfl

Reporting the EYFS Profile Assessment EYFS profile written summary (17 ELG’s and characteristics of effective learning narrative) to parents Year 1 copy of EYFS Profile report (17 ELG’s and characteristics of effective learning narrative) LA submission of EYFSP (17 ELG’s only – narrative not submitted) Completed by provider where child spends majority of their time between 8am and 6pm If child starts with you before half term, you must report results If child starts after half term, previous school/setting is responsible If child arrives from abroad less than two weeks before 20 th June (ie after 6 th June) an accurate and valid assessment cannot be completed

Ealing EYFS Profile Moderation Plan 2 visit Moderation cycle in (Support visit and final visit) 50% will receive moderation visits 50% to attend moderation meeting (including agreement trialling) Both visits and meetings will include a report on the accuracy of practitioner judgements (see example page 56 to 58) Cluster locality moderation opportunity (LA moderator facilitator) All 17 ELG’s moderated, including the range of emerging, expected and exceeding Strong focus in training and in moderation opportunities on Communication and Language and Mathematics (Note: LA Interactive data tool identified for Ealing a very high shift in national rankings especially for Calculating and Reading where we moved up 3 quartile rankings from D quartile to A)

Ealing EYFS Profile Quality Assurance Between June 20 th and July 4 th moderators will review all submitted EYFSP data and consider the following questions: 1.Does the setting’s data reflect LA knowledge of the cohort or outcomes of moderation? 2.Is there a difference in data between classes where there is multiple form entry? 3.Is the setting’s data significantly or unexpectedly adrift from LA data? 4.Are the patterns of attainment which are unexpected in terms of what is known about children’s learning and development in general? 5.Are trends from year to year unexpected? They will contact all schools to confirm if any queries have arisen and, if so, give an opportunity for you to discuss it with staff and provide a response in sufficient detail to resolve the enquiry, or make amendments if required.

Key Dates 2014 Spring term Schools informed if receiving a moderation visit or required to attend a moderation meeting (by 31 st January) Locality cluster Moderation meetings (10 th March to 14 th March) Spring term Moderation support visits (17 th March to 28 th March) EYFS Leaders Briefing – Moderation focus (1 st April 2pm) Summer term Interim judgements made by schools (6 th to 9 th May) Moderation meetings (14 th May AM/PM and 16 th May AM/PM) Moderation visits take place (12 th May to 6 th June) (Note: half term 26 th to 30 th May) Finalise judgments and school internal Quality Assurance (9 th to 20 th June) Submit data to LA (20 th June) LA Quality Assurance (23 rd June to 4 th July) LA submission to DfE (31 st August)

FAQResponse Can LA’s use their schools’ examples of ‘exceeding’ work as a benchmark for moderation judgements this year? To judge whether a child’s learning and development is ‘exceeding’, practitioners should use the best fit model and be confident that the child has moved beyond the ‘expected’ level. Practitioners should:  consider the key stage 1 attainment targets and level descriptors which are available on the DfE’s website at  refer to ‘exceeding’ descriptors (sourced from the Tickell review) which are provided in Annex 2 of the EYFS Profile handbook; and  discuss with year 1 teachers whether a child is ‘exceeding’ in any ELG. Why are we not referring to the Development matters statements as an agency / DFE? To reflect government advice and policy STA has removed all references to the Development matters statements. ‘Early years outcomes’ has now been published (September 2013). It is a non- statutory guidance for practitioners to help inform understanding of child development through the early years. What is STA’s view on how schools should respond to EYFS profile data which an LA believes is not robust for various reasons when Ofsted challenges a school for not meeting their 20%? The school and LA should check that all the moderation requirements set out in the EYFS handbook have been met to ensure their confidence in the accuracy of practitioner judgements in line with national exemplification. Through internal, inter-school and LA moderation and quality assurance processes, headteachers should have been confident that the data submitted to the LA was an accurate representation of the cohort and should be able to articulate this to Ofsted. EYFSP FAQ’s from STA

Are there any additions or changes to the 2014 exemplification? No additions have been made to the 2014 exemplification. The explanatory notes have been removed from the front pages and a page 2 has been inserted in each of the ELGs. For ELG 3 page 11 has been removed. All updates were clearly outlined in the 2014 LA briefing sessions attended by all moderation managers. Can STA give more clarification about interim judgements? Interim judgements are made by practitioners with regard to a child’s attainment at the point of moderation visits. The moderator will refer to these judgements during moderation to assess the accuracy of practitioner judgements. Moderation visits may occur in advance of the final data submission date to the LA. A child may attain a different band in the interim period particularly if moderation has occurred in the early part of the summer term. Will STA be validating the EYFS data that schools send in after moderation? How do LAs check? As outlined in the EYFS profile moderation requirements, all LAs should conduct stringent moderation and quality assurance checks of data prior to submission to the DfE. One of STA’s remits is to ensure the consistency and accuracy of EYFS profile data and audit the implementation of the EYFS profile and local authority moderation processes. As part of this process STA moderators visit a sample of LAs each year to conduct an independent validation and make a judgement concerning the effectiveness of a local authority's approaches and procedures. STA also scrutinises each LA’s EYFS profile planning form to check the requirements are being met. EYFSP FAQ’s from STA FAQResponse Can LA’s use their schools’ examples of ‘exceeding’ work as a benchmark for moderation judgements this year? To judge whether a child’s learning and development is ‘exceeding’, practitioners should use the best fit model and be confident that the child has moved beyond the ‘expected’ level. Practitioners should:  consider the key stage 1 attainment targets and level descriptors which are available on the DfE’s website at  refer to ‘exceeding’ descriptors (sourced from the Tickell review) which are provided in Annex 2 of the EYFS Profile handbook; and  discuss with year 1 teachers whether a child is ‘exceeding’ in any ELG. Why are we not referring to the Development matters statements as an agency / DFE? To reflect government advice and policy STA has removed all references to the Development matters statements. ‘Early years outcomes’ has now been published (September 2013). It is a non-statutory guidance for practitioners to help inform understanding of child development through the early years. What is STA’s view on how schools should respond to EYFS profile data which an LA believes is not robust for various reasons when Ofsted challenges a school for not meeting their 20%? The school and LA should check that all the moderation requirements set out in the EYFS handbook have been met to ensure their confidence in the accuracy of practitioner judgements in line with national exemplification. Through internal, inter-school and LA moderation and quality assurance processes, headteachers should have been confident that the data submitted to the LA was an accurate representation of the cohort and should be able to articulate this to Ofsted. Are there any additions or changes to the 2014 exemplification? No additions have been made to the 2014 exemplification. The explanatory notes have been removed from the front pages and a page 2 has been inserted in each of the ELGs. For ELG 3 page 11 has been removed. All updates were clearly outlined in the 2014 LA briefing sessions attended by all moderation managers. Can STA give more clarification about interim judgements? Interim judgements are made by practitioners with regard to a child’s attainment at the point of moderation visits. The moderator will refer to these judgements during moderation to assess the accuracy of practitioner judgements. Moderation visits may occur in advance of the final data submission date to the LA. A child may attain a different band in the interim period particularly if moderation has occurred in the early part of the summer term.

Do we moderate all ELGs for every child across the bands? On a moderation visit, the moderator must ensure that within the constraints of the range of attainment available, practitioner judgements for all 17 ELGs are moderated. The moderator is unlikely to scrutinise all 17 ELGs for all five children, but will ensure that judgements are moderated from each of the three outcome bands (‘emerging’, ‘expected’ and ‘exceeding’). For training purposes, please refer to the cycle outlined on page 29 of the handbook. The moderation focus for the 2013 to 2014 assessment year is Communication and language development and Mathematics. Can we use the explanatory notes from 2013? The explanatory notes were removed from documentation as in some instances they were being used instead of the ELGs for moderation purposes. The notes still exist in archive material to support the interpretation of the ELGs so could be referenced provided it is in the correct context and not emphasised in moderation discussions. What guidance is there for ELG 3 whereby a child may not even be able to meet the expected requirement? Where a child’s learning and development does not yet meet what is expected at the end of the EYFS, then their learning and development is said to be at the ‘emerging’ level for that ELG. EYFSP FAQ’s from STA FAQResponse Can LA’s use their schools’ examples of ‘exceeding’ work as a benchmark for moderation judgements this year? To judge whether a child’s learning and development is ‘exceeding’, practitioners should use the best fit model and be confident that the child has moved beyond the ‘expected’ level. Practitioners should:  consider the key stage 1 attainment targets and level descriptors which are available on the DfE’s website at  refer to ‘exceeding’ descriptors (sourced from the Tickell review) which are provided in Annex 2 of the EYFS Profile handbook; and  discuss with year 1 teachers whether a child is ‘exceeding’ in any ELG. Why are we not referring to the Development matters statements as an agency / DFE? To reflect government advice and policy STA has removed all references to the Development matters statements. ‘Early years outcomes’ has now been published (September 2013). It is a non-statutory guidance for practitioners to help inform understanding of child development through the early years. What is STA’s view on how schools should respond to EYFS profile data which an LA believes is not robust for various reasons when Ofsted challenges a school for not meeting their 20%? The school and LA should check that all the moderation requirements set out in the EYFS handbook have been met to ensure their confidence in the accuracy of practitioner judgements in line with national exemplification. Through internal, inter-school and LA moderation and quality assurance processes, headteachers should have been confident that the data submitted to the LA was an accurate representation of the cohort and should be able to articulate this to Ofsted. Are there any additions or changes to the 2014 exemplification? No additions have been made to the 2014 exemplification. The explanatory notes have been removed from the front pages and a page 2 has been inserted in each of the ELGs. For ELG 3 page 11 has been removed. All updates were clearly outlined in the 2014 LA briefing sessions attended by all moderation managers. Can STA give more clarification about interim judgements? Interim judgements are made by practitioners with regard to a child’s attainment at the point of moderation visits. The moderator will refer to these judgements during moderation to assess the accuracy of practitioner judgements. Moderation visits may occur in advance of the final data submission date to the LA. A child may attain a different band in the interim period particularly if moderation has occurred in the early part of the summer term.

Contact Details Rachelle Leslie Early Years Consultant Lead