Birth to 5 Matters
Updated
Birth to 5 Matters is a framework for the delivery of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Developed by the Early Years Coalition, it builds on the original Development Matters framework from 2012. Download their free guidance here.
Things to Consider
Birth to 5 Matters supports children's progress towards the statutory EYFS Early Learning Goals (ELGs). However, their division of learning and development into 16 strands/aspects does not directly align with the 17 ELGs.
⚠️ This means that Insight won't be able to automatically calculate your EYFS Profile assessments from any summer Main Assessment you enter. You'll have to make your EYFSP assessments separately.
⚠️ This also means that Insight can't make Good Level of Development (GLD) calculations from your Birth to 5 Matters assessments (you'll still get the end-of-year calculated GLD assessment once your statutory data is inputted).
⚠️ The individual statements from the descriptions of typical child development are not designed by Birth to 5 Matters to be used as tick-lists to track children’s progress. We aren't able to add these as Objectives grids for you.
Recording Birth to 5 Matters assessments in Insight
Birth to 5 Matters groups typical progression into broad "ranges". For your summative assessment, Birth to 5 Matters strongly recommend making no more than three “best fit” judgements about the broad range which best describes a child’s development.
They also strongly recommend against breaking down best-fit judgements against a Range, e.g. through the use of categories like Emerging, Developing and Secure.
Following this advice, the best options to record summative assessments made under this framework in Insight are:
- Assess against the broad ranges, eg "Range 6".
- If you use point-in-time assessment at KS1/2, you may choose to use the same language to assess children in early years (e.g. Just Below, Expected, Above...) Or you could use terminology like Below Typical, Typical, Above Typical.
Entering assessments
You can enter your teacher assessments directly at Enter Data > School Assessments. You'll likely want a Subject Group set up called Birth to 5 Matters, so that you can enter judgements for all strands at once, and make the most of the bulk-fill options to speed things up. Contact support if you need mark schemes and/or subject strands set up.
