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By Rachel Lawler

 

More children are achieving a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, according to the released by the Department for Education.

 

The statistics show that 71.5% of children in England achieved a good level of development in 2018 – up 0.8 percentage points from 2017.

 

The average total point score on the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile has also increased to 34.6, up from 34.5 in 2017.

 

Girls continue to perform better on the test than boys, but the gap between genders has decreased to an average of 13.5 points – down from 16 points in 2013.

 

The statistics also showed regional variations in the test results, with just 63.9% of children in Middlesbrough achieving a good level of development compared to 80.5% of children in Richmond upon Thames.

 

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said: "It's very positive to see that the number of children achieving a good level of development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage has increased yet again. The fact that these figures continue to rise year on year is a testament to the dedication and hard work of early years practitioners working in often-challenging circumstances, not least due to financial constraints.

 

Narrowing focus

"As always, these results serve as a timely reminder of the value of assessing children across a broad range of early skills. It's a shame therefore, that rather than feeling encouraged by today's statistics and supported to carry on delivering quality care and education that supports children across all areas of learning, many practitioners will instead be worried about the ongoing shift in government policy towards a much more formalised approach to early education, and that it will force them to start focusing on narrower, easier-to-measure skills to the detriment of children's early learning.

 

"While some would argue that the EYFS Profile is not a perfect assessment, its strength undoubtedly lies in its broad and observational nature, and the fact that it looks at the EYFS as a stage of learning in its own right. But with plans to reintroduce baseline assessment and narrow the Early Years Goals, the government has made clear that the planned direction of travel for early education is one that focuses on preparing for key stage 1, with a heavy emphasis on numeracy and literacy alone – a clear step in completely the wrong direction.

 

"The government needs to look again at why the EYFS Profile was first introduced, remind itself that early assessment is not, and should not be, a tick-box exercise and look to develop policies which focus on the way children actually develop, not the ease with which their learning can be measured."