Dear Parents and Carers,

Early Years – Early Years Adopter Status

At the end of their Nursery year we assess your child and decide whether they are working at age related expectation. At the end of their Reception year we assess your child and decide if they have met a set of early learning goals in different areas of learning. The government has decided to set out the pathways of children’s development in broad ages and stages and change the early learning goals that we use, to assess your child. They have offered schools the chance to adopt the new early learning goals one year early.

Our school has decided to become an Early Adopter school and since September 2020, we have been using the new document and early learning goals to assess your child for their Nursery and Reception years. New guidance to support learning throughout the Nursery and Reception year has been released, alongside these new early learning goals, this is called Development Matters. Development Matters is not a checklist of things that your child should do, it is guidance for adults who work with children, to help them to support and embed your child’s learning journey.

What does this mean for your child?
Nothing will change for your child. We will continue to offer them the highest quality learning experiences in school and we will continue to develop the whole child, thinking about how they learn and who they are as individuals.

What does it mean for parents and carers?
Nothing will change for parents and carers. We will continue to support you to the best of our ability and value your opinions and knowledge of your child. We will continue to use Seesaw to record your child’s learning journey and would love for you to continue to share with us what your child does at home.

What does it mean for Early Years teachers?
Our teachers have studied the changes and the new guidance closely and are quickly becoming experts in what is to be expected of your child. At the end of the year we will still use our knowledge of your child, alongside evidence that we have gathered throughout the year, to make judgements about whether they have met the early learning goals. This year the local authority will not moderate our judgements. We would hope that the government will ask our opinion of the changes they have made, and that we can help to inform the future of the Early Years.

Please do not hesitate to get in contact via email: rebecca.emery@teignmouthschool.co.uk if you have any questions or concerns.

Stay safe and we hope to see you all soon,

Mrs Emery
Early Years Coordinator