Nursery World - Inspection – Achieving a good outcome without 'unnecessary paperwork'

The revised EYFS requires less paperwork, but settings must not ditch old systems rashly. By Pennie Akehurst

Have you made many changes to your observation, assessment and tracking systems since the implementation of the revised EYFS? And do you have a clear rationale for your decision?

Significant changes were made to the EYFS in 2021 to address three concerns:

While revisions to the Early Learning Goals have not been without controversy, it is the interpretation of the phrase ‘unnecessary paperwork’ that continues to be debated on many social media forums.

The EYFS states that ‘assessment should not entail prolonged breaks from interaction with children, nor require excessive paperwork. When assessing whether an individual child is at the expected level of development, practitioners should draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement and should not be required to prove this through collection of physical evidence.’ (EYFS, 2021)

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