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Using the Birth to 5 Matters & Development Matters frameworks in Evidence Me

June 16, 2021

We are proud to announce that Evidence Me fully supports the new 2021 EYFS Statutory framework as well as the Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters frameworks.

The Statutory Framework provides guidance that every setting must follow and highlights the importance of practitioners performing frequent formative assessment as well as summative assessment.

The new framework is intended to ensure that practitioners spend the maximum possible time with children and spend minimum time on administrative and assessment tasks.

At 2Simple, we agree that all onerous tasks should be eradicated which is why Evidence Me makes sure that creating observations takes no time at all. In fact, Evidence Me is the most efficient and effective way to combine parental engagement and formative assessment in the Foundation Stage, giving you maximum time to interact with your learners.

If you do not currently use Evidence Me you can sign up for a 14-day trial

We've put together a checklist highlighting the frameworks, features and benefits that are all included within Evidence Me. Download your copy here.

Non-Statutory “Development Matters” Guidance

To achieve the “formative assessment” part of the statutory guidance, the Government understands that many settings will want to collect some evidence from term to term.

To help with this, the Government has produced some non-statutory guidance – a simplified and updated 2020 version of “Development Matters”. This framework is already available in Evidence Me as the “EYFS Pilot 2020” framework.

Assessment

Evidence Me enables teachers to perform both formative and summative assessments. Within the platform there are a range of powerful reports: Framework coverage, Teach Next and coverage trackers that will give you all the information you need for your formative assessment and allows you to monitor what individual children have covered and have not covered. These reports are totally based on what the children have experienced in observations, and Evidence Me makes it really easy to complete these, you don’t need to visit an assessment screen or make any onerous judgements. It is enough to tag what objective the children have experienced in the observation.

The new statutory framework also places emphasis on summative assessment and within Evidence Me there is a powerful assessment feature to help you with your EYFS Profile assessment against the ELGs.

You can either use solely your professional judgement, or you can allow the “Assessment Assistant” to provide some decision support to you. It does this by checking to see which Development Matters objectives have been experienced by which children, and highlighting this in the assessment grid.

The “Birth-5 Matters” Framework from Early Education

Evidence Me also meets all the requirements of the “Birth to 5 Matters” framework. This framework is different to most other Evidence Me frameworks in that individual objectives are not available for selection or assessment. Early Education has stipulated this, to promote an approach where children’s progress is not monitored in as much detail as is typical currently. When you are creating observations, you can select the “Birth to 5” framework, then choose which areas of learning are covered in the observation.

Assessment in the Web Suite

The mobile app is perfect for making quick assessments for individual children. The web suite provides you with an extremely powerful and insightful area to manage all assessments for your whole setting.

Your Birth to 5 Matters observations will be available for you to reference when you perform your assessments.

On the assessment page, you will see your children shown, along with any judgements that you have added. The “R1” – “R6” judgements represent the “Range 1” to “Range 6” ranges as specified in the Birth to 5 Matters guidance.

Lastly, you can click on any judgement to change it. An assessment helper will also appear, providing you with any observations that match the area you’re looking at.

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Quick Assessment in the App

It is very quick and simple to make assessment judgements in the app. To do this:

  • Go to “Profiles” on the bottom tab in the app
  • Find the child that you would like to assess
  • Select the “Birth to 5” Framework
  • Tap “All Areas” to see all areas in the framework
  • Tap on an area to change it.

If you would like the Birth to 5 Matters framework activating on your account now, please contact support.

If you do not currently use Evidence Me you can sign up for a 14-day trial

Two tablets showing early years observations being captured on Evidence Me by 2Simple Ltd