September 2021 with Tapestry

Checkpoints are taken directly from the new Development Matters materials. They appear only for the ‘Birth to 3’ and ‘3 to 4 years’ age pathways, in the Prime Areas. There are no checkpoints for the Reception age pathway, or in the Specific areas. The Checkpoints are there to act as prompts to compare a child to typical child development for that age.

The EYFS 2021 flags are all the areas from the Development Matters, and the aspects from Birth to 5 Matters, and can be used to link observations to these. They are not assessment markers, so you do not need to be thinking about statements or age pathways/ranges whilst completing an observation.

Completely! It is important to remember, when you are flagging an observation, you are not assessing it. You are just saying which areas or aspects fit that observation.

Related areas and aspects feed into the same section of the Areas of Concern screen – e.g. The Physical Development area and the Moving & Handling / Health and Self Care aspects all go into the Physical Development section on the Areas of Concern screen.

The Areas of Concern screen allows you to highlight any children that you feel may need some extra support. The screen can be found by going to Tracking >> EYFS 2021 on any browser. There are two options – guided and group views.

The guided view takes you through each selected child and areas, showing you any linked observations and reflections so that you consider the development of that child with all the information to hand. This may be particularly useful if you are doing a pupil progress meeting or similar and are discussing the child in detail with someone else.

The group view shows you all selected children and areas in one screen. It will show how many observations and reflections each child has linked for each area, but you have to select them to see what they are. Both options allow you to choose ‘Concern’, ‘No Concern’ or ‘Review’.

‘Review’ is used when you feel that you might need some more information before making a judgement – perhaps talking things through with another member of staff or observing the child further.

‘Concern’ is used if the child needs some extra support in accessing the provision that you have put in place for them. It highlights that child to all staff so that everyone working with them is aware and can help ensure that the child is supported quickly.

‘No Concerns’ is used when a child is accessing the provision as expected and therefore making expected developmental progress.

This is completely down to how useful you find the information it provides. You may like to complete it just before doing your planning, or you may wish to complete it termly, reviewing how the child has accessed the provision during that time. However you plan on using it, it is important that is it manageable for you and other staff, and also has an impact on the support and provision that you provide for each child.

The Areas of Concern screen will be great for this type of monitoring. When you are planning the provision for a child, if that child needs more support in accessing it, then you would highlight them as a ‘concern’. This shows all staff that this child might need some support in accessing the provision provided.

You could also use Reflections to start to record the area of support you have identified as being needed, what you have tried, what has worked and what has not. This will help you to adapt the provision for that child so that they are able to access it without extra support again. Once that has been achieved, you can then change them to ‘no concern’.

This is why it is important not to think of the Areas of Concern screen as ‘on track’ / ‘not on track’. It is possible that a child with learning differences, who is not at a typical developmental stage for their age, is a ‘no concern’ the whole time they are with you because you have adapted your provision to meet their needs and support them to make progress.

When a child joins your provision, you will have an idea of a few things that you expect a child of that age to be able to do. It may be worth creating a ‘Baseline’ document that you use as prompts when observing the child over the first few weeks. Once you feel that you have observed the child enough to be able to make a judgement, you can then look at using the Areas of Concern screen to highlight areas that the child may need extra support in, so that the provision provided for them is adapted.

The Areas of Concern screen and Reflections are only accessible via a browser. This includes a browser on a mobile device. The screens are not accessible through the app however. You can add observations with the flags through the latest version of the Tapestry Mobile app.

The provision you put in place for the children would be expected to meet their development in most cases. Therefore, if a child is shown to be a ‘no concern’ for the whole term, it could be said that they are making the expected progress. You would have observed that they are making progress from their own starting point.

This does not necessarily mean they are ‘on track’ though. Keep in mind the question On track for what?

Remember you are monitoring each child against the provision you have in place for them. Is that provision what you would expect for a typically developing child of their age?

Nothing will be set automatically for you. Unless a member of staff records a change on the Areas of Concern screen, the child will remain as a ‘no concern’, which is how all children start on the screen. It is important that changes are based on your knowledge of the children and you don’t rely on things being done automatically for you.

When a child is highlighted as a ‘concern’, this is a chance for all staff working with that child to develop a plan to support them and ensure that they are able to access their provision, which in turn will ensure that they are making developmental progress.

At this point, the support put in place, the things tried and what is working for the child, can be recorded in a reflection. As the provision is adapted for the child, the aim is for them to be able to access this without extra support – finding the balance that supports the child in their development and ensuring that they continue to make developmental progress. The time this takes depends on the child and how they respond to the provision that you are putting in place for them.

The important thing is, once they are accessing the adapted provision, you move them back to a ‘no concern’ or ‘review’ so that you are able to focus on other children who may also need support.

The previous Summative Assessment screen was based on the old Development Matters materials and age bands within it. As these are no longer used, and the new guidance materials are not there to be assessed against, it would not be possible to create a new Summative Assessment as this would be against your own assessment criteria. The Areas of Concern screen is the best replacement for this and helps you to identify those children who might need extra support in accessing the provision and to make continued expected developmental progress.