Guest blog: the Early Years Foundation Stage Reforms – Reflections from an Early Adopter School

My name is Katherine Davis and I am the Early Years Lead at Penn Wood Primary School in Slough.  We are a three-form entry primary school with a 52-place nursery offering both 15- and 30-hour places.   Below are some reflections from our journey as Early Adopters: positives, challenges and take-away messages.

Positives arising from the new framework

·       Relationships

Relationships (between staff and between staff, children and their families) have been at the heart of our implementation of the new framework.  More time has been spent with the children rather than on pushing ourselves to gather evidence across the areas of learning.  We have spent much more time getting to know children and supporting their learning individually.  Building a dialogue with families, and truly valuing their input, continues to be central to our approach.  The pandemic and resulting lockdowns increased our engagement with families; regular phone calls and remote learning provision meant we got to learn far more about our families’ lives.  The challenge now will be to sustain this level of partnership in times that are more ‘normal’.

·       Freedom of approach

In many of the webinars and discussion sessions we have attended, the main messages have all been about doing what is best for each child in your care.  Knowing our children and knowing what they can do already forms the basis of what we provide for them in our classrooms.  Whilst we do have a long-term plan, we are encouraged to adapt and change this as needed.  The new framework has allowed us to be far more flexible with what we do, whilst always considering the learning and development needs, and the interests of, the children in each cohort.  

As a Talk for Writing school (and training centre), books have always been at the heart of our school, but they have become even more of a driver in Early Years since becoming an Early Adopter.   They now drive everything that we do in all areas of the curriculum.  This has supported us with the increased focus on vocabulary that runs through many of the new ELGs. 

·       Knowing the statutory framework

Whilst the new ELGs can seem quite ‘narrow’ at first glance, we put a real focus on understanding the Educational Programmes.  This is where our breadth of coverage comes from.  We ensured that the Education Programmes formed part of our discussions with subject leads when discussing the reforms.  

·       Putting the focus back on Prime Areas and CoEL

In Nursery, especially, we are putting the focus firmly on the prime areas of learning and the CoEL.  We are lucky to have worked closely with Ruth Swailes over the past two years; Ruth regularly shares that the CoEL are time sensitive and that without a secure base in the prime areas, learning in the specific areas will be more challenging.  The children’s experiences of the Prime Areas may have been adversely affected by their lockdown experiences, e.g. parks and soft-plays closed, less opportunities to mix with people outside of their immediate family etc.  

Challenges arising from the new framework

·       Managing change

Open and honest conversations between all involved were key in developing our approach.  Our headteacher worked closely with us all and we worked through things together.  At first, the removal of the age bands was challenging, especially for staff who had worked in EYs for a number of years, as they had been used to looking for these statements when doing observations and being able to ‘tick’ them off as evidence was gathered.  We removed them from our online learning journal, and put the focus back on CoEL. 

·       Lack of knowledge

As Early Adopters, there was very little training / support available to work with the new framework.  Our headteacher reached out to other Early Adopter schools in Slough, and, supported by Ruth Swailes, we met termly to discuss approaches and best practice.  It is also important to acknowledge that we are all still learning; no-one will get it 100% right 100% of the time.  We were able to find our own pathway which provided great opportunities for networking and professional development.  People offering more training and support remotely has been really beneficial and far more flexible and has also been more affordable for many.

·       Exemplification materials

The lack of exemplification materials (still) meant that any form of ‘moderation’ between teachers / classes was based on our own professional judgement and discussion.  It will be interesting to see what these look like when they finally arrive!  With Local Authority moderation now not statutory in the framework, one would imagine that some form of class-class / school-school moderation will be needed to support making judgements and one would hope that this would be based on practitioner knowledge of the child and not reams and reams of evidence!

·       External pressures

Social media can be amazing but also terrifying.  I joined the Early Adopters group on Facebook before the start of last year.  Quickly, the idea surfaced of progression maps, and soon came the idea that these were somehow statutory.  As Dr Sue Allingham often says, “People make things up!”  One of the things I learned from working with Ruth Swailes is to know your statutory documents well.  If you are asked for something that you know is not needed, ask where it is mentioned in the handbook.  Stick to what you know is statutory and what is best for the children in your care.

·       Concerns over data

With the challenge within the ELGs increasing, there was naturally concern over a drop in GLD.  We were particularly concerned about the new ELGs for CLL, Numerical Patterns and Writing due to the nature of our school community.  However, as far as we know, assessment against the ELGs will still be best-fit.  Therefore, if a child is achieving most of the skills within numerical patterns, for example, but still requires concrete manipulatives to demonstrate number bonds to 10, the ELG could still be awarded.  Open conversations about next steps would be needed with colleagues in Year 1.  

Final comments

Embrace the challenge.  Reach out, ask for support and share ideas.  We are all still learning and will be for some time.  No-one knows all the answers.

Do what’s best for your children, families and setting.

And remember, the ELGs are not your curriculum!