Nursery World - EYFS Best Practice: observation

Practitioners can use the Birth To 5 Matters guidance to help them produce their observations of children’s development and progress, explains Di Chilvers

Riley with key person Georgina (left) and manager Leanna Clark

Understanding children’s development and learning depends on our observations, how we make sense of what we have seen and how we use everything we know to make professionally informed decisions about their progress. The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework (2021) states that practitioners and teachers must ‘respond to day-to-day observations about children’s progress’ as ‘an integral part of the learning and development process’ and ‘know about children’s level of achievement and interests to shape teaching and learning’ through ‘drawing on their knowledge of the child – using own expert professional judgement’.

The Birth To 5 Matters guidance (2021) helps practitioners to make these important ‘professional judgements’ about children’s learning and progress by using the 6 Ranges and the overlapping age spans as a continuum of development. This Developmental Continuum (see diagram) becomes a guide or map to show a child’s unique learning journey from birth.

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