New guidance has just been published to support practitioners in assessing the skills of five year olds. The 2013 Early Years Foundation Stage Handbook (STA, 2012) has recently been produced by the Standards and Testing Agency. This handbook reiterates that bilingual children's attainment at five years old respect of the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) in 'communication and language and for literacy must be assessed in relation to the child’s competency in English'. The remaining ELGs may be assessed in the context of any language – including the child’s home language and English.
The handbook also points out that
Parents also need to know that it is perfectly acceptable, even desirable, for the child’s home language to be used in the setting. Practitioners will need to observe the child over time and raise questions with the parents, and/or bilingual support assistants, to be confident about what the child knows and understands.
There are three aspects specific to the assessment of children for whom English is not their home language:
- development in their home language;
- development across areas of learning, assessed through their home language; and
- development of English.
The Handbook does not provide any further detail on these important aspects of assessment except for those relating to the development of English.
The new Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage requires EYFS settings to 'ensure that children have sufficient opportunities to learn and reach a good standard in English language during the EYFS, ensuring children are ready to benefit from the opportunities available to them when they begin Year 1' Practitioners must also review children's progress between two and three and provide a short written summary to parents of their progress in prime areas. This must include a description of activities and strategies the provider intends to adopt to address any issues or concerns. For children who do not have a strong grasp of English, this therefore should include the strategies and activities the settings will undertake to promote English language development. Similarly providers with bilingual children aged 3-5 must take reasonable steps to support home language development and English language learning.
