Section 4: Reporting and using results
Reporting to parents, governing body responsibilities and how EYFS profile assessment results are used
Parents should be involved in the assessment process on a regular, ongoing basis. They should be encouraged to take part in their child’s learning and development.
All EYFS providers must give parents a written summary of a pupil’s attainment against the early learning goals (ELGs). For each ELG this must state whether the pupil is:
- meeting expected levels of development
- exceeding expected levels or
- not yet reaching expected levels (‘emerging’)
At the end of reception year, providers should give parents a written report which:
- states the pupil’s attainment against the ELGs
- summarises attainment in all areas of learning
- comments on general progress including the characteristics of effective learning
- explains arrangements for discussing the profile
Reports should:
- be specific to the pupil
- be concise and informative
- help to identify appropriate next steps
Practitioners may use the information provided by EYFS profile assessment as a basis for their reports to parents.
Settings must offer parents a reasonable opportunity to discuss the outcomes of the EYFS profile with their child’s teacher. This meeting should be within the term in which the EYFS profile has been completed. Teachers may wish to consider making the pupil’s profile available to parents as part of this discussion. If parents ask to see a copy of their child’s profile, the setting must make this available.
4.2 Pupils who transfer to a new school
The Education (Pupil Information)(England)Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/1437) require schools to transfer a pupil’s educational record and common transfer file (CTF) to any new school to which a pupil transfers in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. The means of transfer to a school outside England must be in line with the arrangements for transfer between schools in England.
If a pupil transfers schools before the summer half term holiday, the new setting must report the pupil results to its local authority (LA). If a pupil transfers schools during the second half of the summer term then the previous school is responsible for reporting to the LA.
Copies of every report forming part of a pupil’s educational record must also be transferred automatically when a pupil changes school. Certain information, including teacher assessment, is transferred securely via the CTF. Read the CTF guidance for details of the statutory information that should form part of the file.
Management information system suppliers will usually provide further guidance to schools, specific to their system.
Governing body responsibilities
The governing body must arrange to have the following information sent to the pupil’s new school:
- the pupil’s educational record
- the defined items of data that comprise the CTF
This task is often delegated to headteachers by governing bodies. The information must be sent within 15 school days of the pupil ceasing to be registered at the old school, unless the new school is not known. In this case it should be sent within 15 school days of any request from the pupil’s new school.
If the new school is unknown, the Department for Education (DfE) recommends that the school should still complete the CTF and load it onto the school to school (s2s) secure transfer system. If schools don’t receive a CTF for a new pupil they can ask their LA to search for the file on s2s.
Where both the old and the new school have the necessary facilities, the CTF must be sent to the new school either:
- through s2s
- over a secure network that can only be accessed by the LA, the governing body or a teacher at any school within that LA
The basic requirement is that the old school will send the educational records and CTF to the new school by 1 of these methods. If either school doesn’t have the facilities to send or receive information in this format, then the LA may provide the file where there are agreed and secure local arrangements to that effect.
4.3 How EYFS profile assessment results are used
Year 1 teachers use EYFS profile assessment data to understand each pupil’s development and learning needs. Providers should ensure that year 1 teachers receive all the required information detailed in this guidance.
EYFS profile assessment data can be a source of information about levels of development within a school or setting. For example:
- levels of learning and development in each of the areas of learning for individual pupils, classes and year groups
- the attainment of pupils born in different months of the year
- the attainment of different groups of pupils, for example boys and girls
Schools may also wish to conduct further analysis using wider contextual information. The DfE will publish national and LA data so that they can compare their pupils’ attainment on a regional and national basis.
There are no achievement and attainment tables for the EYFS.
The government has committed to publishing policy input and impact indicators. These are set out in departmental business plans. One of the DfE’s impact indicators is the proportion of pupils achieving a ‘good level of development’ in the EYFS by free school meal eligibility. The DfE will use statistical measures to show progress against this indicator.