“We are delighted to offer this support to the early years sector as they look ahead to implementing the revised EYFS from September,” said Beatrice Merrick, Chair of the Early Years Coalition. “It is a rich resource which will support knowledge of child development and how children learn, and help practitioners make their own professional judgements about meeting the needs of the children they work with.”

Although Birth to 5 Matters builds on previous non-statutory guidance for the EYFS, it has updated all the material to reflect research evidence and meet the needs of practitioners today.  It outlines the foundations of good practice and offers information and guidance for practitioners to consider how the Principles of the EYFS can be brought to life in their setting. New sections on play, characteristics of effective learning, and self-regulation are designed to help practitioners to reflect on and develop their own pedagogy.

“The guidance includes detailed examples of trajectories of development and learning in all the prime and specific areas,” says Nancy Stewart, Project Lead.  “The need for this information to support child development knowledge came through very clearly in our consultations.”

But she cautions that a new mindset is needed across the sector, to move away from a checklist approach that takes practitioners away from being with children. “If settings have been using previous guidance as a checklist, they should not see Birth to 5 Matters as a replacement to be used in that way,” she says.  “Instead, it is a support for informed professional judgement that will help practitioners move to a new way of understanding and supporting children’s learning, with a minimalist approach to recording assessment.’

The Early Years Coalition is currently planning for training materials and events to introduce practitioners to using Birth to 5 Matters, as well as to support professional development in areas that have been highlighted through the consultations.

The launch at 7pm on Wednesday 31 March will be streamed live at https://www.facebook.com/birthto5matters, and a recording of the event will be available after the launch at https://www.birthto5matters.org.uk/ .

IELS showed that five-year-old children in England achieved similar development to their peers in Estonia – the highest-performing OECD country in the PISA study at age 15 – and greater development than children in the USA.

The analysis shows us where there are development gaps, and identifies which groups of children may need additional support.

NFER was contracted by the Department for Education to analyse this data and report on their findings. The research examines early learning outcomes in emergent literacy, emergent numeracy, self-regulation, social-emotional development and physical development. These key aspects combine to present a holistic picture of young children’s development.

IELS involved children taking part in a range of interactive stories and games. Teachers and parents were also asked to assess children’s development in some aspects of social-emotional development.

Key findings from the report are outlined below:

Low birthweight was associated with lower physical and cognitive development, but not social and emotional development

Children whose parents had reported them as having low birthweight had statistically significantly lower levels of emergent literacy, emergent numeracy, working memory and physical development at age 5 compared to their peers. The largest development gap was found in physical development – equivalent to approximately nine months, while these children were also three months’ behind in emergent literacy, and four months’ behind in emergent numeracy and working memory.

However, low birthweight was not significantly related to development in any of the social-emotional measures in IELS such as trust or emotion identification.

Children’s physical development is significantly related to deprivation and gender

Children who were eligible for free school meals were on average eight months’ behind their more affluent peers for physical development. Five-year-old girls were on average nine months’ ahead of boys.

Children’s development across different outcomes at five-years-old is highly interrelated

Five-year-old children with greater development in early literacy (including listening comprehension, phonological awareness and vocabulary) are more likely to have similarly strong development in early numeracy. There were also strong correlations between high development in mental flexibility and working memory, while physical development was strongly correlated with prosocial behaviour and Trust.  The fact that there were significant relationships between children’s development in different areas suggests that a whole range of different areas of learning are important for children’s development.

Children with English as an additional language can be at risk in certain aspects of their development

Children with English as an additional language were approximately eight months’ behind their peers for emergent literacy and three months’ behind their peers for emergent numeracy. In addition, they were approximately three months’ behind their peers in mental flexibility, working memory and emotion attribution. However, they showed similar development to their peers in inhibition, non-disruptive behaviour and physical development.

Persistence is associated with early development

Children whose teachers rated them as ‘often or always’ persistent at the age of five were more than 12 months’ ahead of their peers rated as ‘rarely or never’ persistent for physical development. These children were also approximately 11 months’ ahead of their peers in emergent literacy, and 8 months’ ahead in emergent numeracy.

There are a range of simple activities parents can do to aid their children’s development

The research showed that children who drew or painted at home three or four times a week showed some evidence of better physical development than those that did not, equivalent to five months’ difference. Physical development covers gross motor skills, such as the ability to run and jump, as well as fine motor skills, such as using scissors to cut around a shape or putting on a coat without help. IELS also provides evidence of other simple activities parents can do to aid their children’s development at age 5, including reading to them every day, making sure they have access to children’s books at home, having regular conversations about their feelings, and being involved with their school.

Caroline Sharp, Research Director at NFER, said: “As we count the cost of the pandemic on children’s development and wellbeing, these findings feel particularly important. We know that too many pupils, particularly the most deprived, have been so adversely affected over the past year, and this research gives new insight into how we can best support those most at risk.

“In particular, this research demonstrates the impact that low birthweight can have on young children’s development across a number of measures. This new information shows that we must raise awareness of this issue, monitor the development of children with low birthweight for longer, and provide additional support for their development in these areas.”

In a review of international evidence into teaching and learning Early Years and Key Stage 1 maths, published on 27th November, researchers make several recommendations for classroom-based interventions. They identified a small, but growing body of research which advocated teachers using storybooks to support mathematical talk and discussion with three-to-seven-year-olds. Tutoring programmes, especially for low-attaining children, were also found to have a positive impact on maths achievement. However, the review emphasized that this was only likely to be the case with planned interventions which were designed to address specific weakness in numeracy.

Almost all the effective tutoring programmes had been developed by experts and were based on research into children’s mathematical development.

Loughborough’s Dr Colin Foster, of the Mathematics Education Centre, said: “Improving children’s maths skills is an important aspect of education and anything which helps educators do this is vital for their development. Using storybooks could be a good way of helping children build more sophisticated mathematical ideas. However, we did find that teachers needed to carefully consider which storybooks to use and how to use them. There was a similar caveat for tutoring. The programmes we reviewed had an impact on learning and achievement. But successful interventions tended to be structured and designed around specific needs and involved regular sessions lasting a term or longer.”

The review made five key recommendations:

• Develop practitioners’ understanding of how children learn mathematics
• Dedicate time for children to learn mathematics and integrate mathematics throughout the day
• Use manipulatives and representations to develop understanding
• Ensure that teaching builds on what children already know
• Use high quality targeted support to help all children learn mathematics

Other teaching aids highlighted in the review included computer-assisted instruction and explicit teaching.

Researchers found a large body of evidence demonstrating that interventions delivered through apps or computer-assisted instruction, or where guidance from teachers is high, can have a positive effect on children’s attainment in mathematics. However, much of the evidence relates to software that is not distributed in England or designed for the English mathematics curriculum.

Professor Jeremy Hodgen, of the UCL Institute of Education, added: “Raising young children’s attainment in maths is vitally important and particularly so during the current pandemic. Our review, and the guidance it informed, provides valuable evidence for teachers and other educators about effective ways of improving young children’s understanding of mathematics.”

The review, Early Years and Key Stage 1 Mathematics Teaching: Evidence Review, was published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and written by a team from the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), the University of Brighton, Loughborough University and Ulster University. It was written by Professor Jeremy Hodgen (IOE), Dr Nancy Barclay (University of Brighton), Dr Colin Foster (Loughborough University), Professor Camilla Gilmore (Loughborough University), Dr Rachel Marks (University of Brighton) and Dr Victoria Simms (Ulster University).

The Forest Kindergarten programme was developed by FCS in 2009 and is designed to equip early years teachers with the knowledge, understanding and skills to support children in learning through play in local woodlands and green spaces.

The course includes activities such as exploring for bugs, tracking animals, arts and crafts, den building, and learning about the dangers and risks to look out for in a woodland setting.

Research has shown that play and learning in woodland and greenspaces leads to a range of benefits for children’s development, including better concentration, better communication skills, greater stamina, improved balance and coordination, increased confidence and appreciation of the outdoors.

Sally York, education policy adviser at Forestry Commission Scotland, said: “FCS’s partnership with the SQA has been invaluable for accrediting the Forest Kindergarten course. With it becoming a nationally recognised qualification, this will add value to the course for early years practitioners. It will benefit them and the children they work with, in that the practitioner will have a more in depth understanding and appreciation of early years pedagogy and play outdoors.”

FCS is seeking colleges and educational institutions from around Scotland to deliver the newly accredited Forest Kindergarten course as part of their early years curriculum. The programme is currently being delivered by West College and has been completed by almost 200 students.

Geraldine Miller, curriculum quality leader childhood practice at West College, said: “We have been embedding the three-day Forest Kindergarten programme in our course delivery since 2014 and are very fortunate to have the support of FCS in its roll out for early years students. The Kindergarten programme thus far has engaged students and staff in practical hands-on learning, designed to equip them with the skills needed to make the most of the outdoor space available. This allows children the freedom to play, explore and learn without limits.

“With the Scottish Government 1140 hours expansion programme underway it is important for early years practitioners to embrace the possibilities within the boundaries of their settings. As a college we are delighted that SQA and FCS have this new National Work-based Award, which recognises the value of on and off site outdoor space as an integral part of the learning processes for pre-school children.”

Colleges, educational institutions and early years practitioners interested in finding out more about the Forest Kindergarten programme, please contact Marian Cairns at marian.cairns@forestry.gsi.gov.uk