Booklet Version 2.0

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Introduction

Welcome to the EYFS Group Progress Review tool.

The web-based Group Progress Review tool has been produced by VSense, at the request of and in conjunction with West Sussex County

Council (WSCC). It supports settings with 0-5 year old children to meet statutory assessment requirements, particularly with regard to

group progress.

The Ofsted judgement for ‘Good’ Leadership and Management requires that:

“Monitoring ensures that planning and assessment are consistent, precise and display an accurate understanding of all children’s skills,

abilities and progress. As a result, individual children or groups of children with identified needs are targeted, their progress rigorously

monitored so that appropriate interventions are sought and gaps are closing.” (Evaluation schedule for inspections of registered early years provision

– 4 November 2013)

In line with these principles this tool has also been constructed to support:

evidence of assessment on entry, including parental contributions

two-year old progress checks

transition, within and beyond the setting.

It has been designed to be quick and easy to use, inform practice and provision and to facilitate information sharing within the setting. It

supports identification of trends within groups, Key Person groups and across the setting and enables parents and other involved

professionals to be active partners. It should also help keep paperwork to a minimum.

Principles are in line with WSCC assessment guidance; providing flexible and structured support for next steps assessment and planning,

alongside Learning Journals and other assessment methods.

This web-based facility enables data to be stored securely. It allows immediate access, by managers and key/nominated setting

personnel, to children’s and group records through the unique password for each setting. Locking data down twice termly and backing it

up regularly provides set progress monitoring points and avoids loss of records.

Anonymous, geographically based learning trends will be shared securely with WSCC, on a termly basis. No personal data relating to

individual settings or children is accessed. The data will be used by the County Council solely to identify learning trends and training

needs across the county. In light of good partnership working it would be valuable for you to share this with parents and to assure them

this is solely to ensure that resources are targeted appropriately. A Privacy Notice is provided at login for this purpose.

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As well as the support provided within this User Guide, technical back-up can be accessed at each stage of the tool, right from

registration, with swift response times. Any adaptations, to meet changing national requirements of settings, will be notified to you by the

technical team.

Finally, we hope this package provides you with an accessible, flexible and useful way to meet assessment requirements and further

supports successful working with West Sussex County Council.

Sandie Piper Lesley Jallow

Associate Advisor Early Years General Advisor, Early Years

West Sussex County Council West Sussex County Council

West Sussex County Council would like to thank the settings that took part so enthusiastically in the pilot, for their

commitment to supporting the development of a useful tool for all settings – despite a few challenges along the way. As a

result of their valuable input Version 2 is much more user friendly and flexible.

Early Childhood Service, St James Campus, St James Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7HA

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Account Signup To start using the EYFS Group Progress Review a user account is required. This is valid for all nominated personnel in the setting. Visit the signup screen here: https://ws.eyfs.uk.com/signup 1. Enter your first name and surname. 2. enter the setting name and Ofsted URN

(numbers only excluding EY prefix). 3. enter your email address (this will

become your username) and setting phone number (this may be used to verify your account in future).

4. enter a secure password and confirm password (this must be between 8 and 20 characters. Please mix numbers and letters, upper and lower case, and symbols like # & * % $). This can be used by all Key Persons in the setting.

5. click the signup button. You will receive an email, within one working day, to inform you that your account has been set up. Click the link to confirm and activate the account.

Compatibility EYFS Group Progress Review requires a secure environment and is designed to work with modern web browsers. If using an older browser such as Internet Explorer 7, you may experience errors. Please upgrade your browser if needed.

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Login To log into EYFS Group Progress Review: 1. Visit the login screen here:

https://ws.eyfs.uk.com 2. Enter the username (your email address)

and password for the setting that was created during the signup process.

3. Click the login button. The ‘forgotten /change your password’ link will email you a link to reset your password. Please note that the system will log out automatically after 30 minutes if not in use. Frequent saving of data is suggested.

Important Information All information on this system is held securely and is only accessible through authorised and protected processes. It is the responsibility of all users to ensure that the confidentiality of personal details and attributable data is not breached by:

ensuring that logged-on computers are not unattended or accessible to unauthorised persons;

ensuring that passwords are not saved or shared with others;

granting access only to authorised people;

ensuring printed versions of data or personal details are held in a secure place.

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Dashboard (Home Screen) Once logged in, the dashboard screen will display the four main areas of the system:

Children (Blue)

Key Person (Green)

Review Progress (Purple)

Run Reports (Orange) Initially there will not be any children or key persons on the system, so they should be added now. Firstly click on the blue Children panel.

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Children Initially the Children screen will have no children listed. Once children are added to the system, this screen will show a full overview of:

Children's Full Names

Gender

Date of Birth

Age in months (auto calculated)

2 Year Check status (an automated alert will occur when the appropriate age is reached)

Home Postcode

Key Person Two Year Check When a child reaches 24 months a Two Year Check red flag will appear on the screen next to the child’s details. Our advice is to complete the check between 30 and 36 months. Once the Check has been completed the Key Person should edit the child details by placing a tick in the relevant box (See Page 9). This will turn the flag to green to show completion. If the check is not completed by 36 months the flag will change to grey. At the end of each line for the child, there is an edit button and delete icon. These are discussed on Page 9. Start by adding children to the system:

Click Add New Child +.

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Create Child Details Screen Children are added to the system quickly by entering the following:

First Name

Surname

Select Gender from the dropdown

Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy format)

Postcode (Home Address)

Select any Options relevant to the child

(Please note that if no Date of Birth is added the system will automatically assume it is 1/1/1970.) 1. Enter initial assessment data

The On Entry Stages facility provides a first assessment point, either for new children or for the first time of using the tool. This must be entered when adding a child to the system and judgements cannot be edited subsequently.

Click Save to save and return to the Children overview screen; or

Click Cancel to return to the Children overview without saving any information.

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Editing a Child’s Details From the Children overview screen, clicking the Edit button will load this screen. It is similar to the Create Child Details screen, except all the previously entered information can be edited, other than on entry stages.

1. Make any required changes to the information.

Click Save to save and return to the Children overview screen; or

Click Cancel to return to the Children overview without saving any information.

Use the tabs at the top of the screen to navigate back to the required point.

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Key Person Screen Select the green Key Person panel from the Dashboard Screen. As with the Children overview screen, the Key Person overview screen will initially be empty. This screen allows a Key Person to be added to the system. They will then be able to be assigned to the children entered previously. Once a Key Person is added to the system, this screen will show a full overview of:

Key Person’s name

Number of assigned children

Short description At the end of the line for each Key Person there is an edit button and delete icon. These are discussed on Page 12. At the bottom of the screen there is an indication of how many children within the system are not yet assigned to a Key Person. Start by adding each Key Person to the system:

Click Add New Key Person +

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Creating a Key Person

Record A Key Person is added to the system quickly by entering the following:

Full Name

Description (such as room they work in)

From the Children section, select a child from the Available list and click the > button to move them to the Selected list. Clicking the >> button will move all available children to the Selected box.

Repeat this until all the children that are required to be assigned to this key person are shown in the Selected list.

This process assigns these children to the Key Person. Any mistakes can be resolved by selecting the child and clicking the < button to remove them. Clicking the << will remove the whole list.

Click Save to save and return to the Key Person overview screen; or

Click Cancel to return to the Key Person overview without saving any information.

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Editing a Key Person

From the Key Person overview screen, clicking the Edit button will load this screen. It is similar to the Create a Key Person screen except all the previously entered information can be edited. Make any required changes to the information.

Click Save to save and return to the Key Person overview screen; or

Click Cancel to return to the Key Person overview without saving any information.

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Recording Group Progress Select the Purple Group Progress panel from the Dashboard Screen. This screen allows the recording of progress for a group of children assigned to a Key Person. 1. Select the Recording Period the record

covers from the dropdown. 2. Select the Key Person who is recording

the progress

Click Start to start the record; or

Click Cancel to return to the Dashboard overview without saving any information.

The two sections at the bottom of the screen enable you to edit or delete partially completed records, at any time, or view locked, submitted reports. Locked reports cannot be edited. They provide the background data for the progress graphs, as discussed on Page 17 In line with our recommendation, data should be locked down following a Next Steps assessment period, once all of the children in the Key Person group have been assessed and entered. You will be prompted by the provider, one week before the due date, to take this action. Locking down in this way provides two clear assessment points each term.

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Recording Group Progress

(continued) The left column shows a full list of children assigned to the Key Person. The 17 aspects are listed along the top of the screen. The main body of the screen contains a dropdown for each child, related to aspect. A list of these abbreviations can be found on the last page of this guide or by hovering over the abbreviation. The system will automatically bring in the previous assessment stage to ease editing for the next assessment period. 1. For each aspect select the ‘best fit’ Stage

of Development for each child from the dropdown options.

These are broken down into three options - .1, .2 and .3 - for each Stage. For consistency of judgement these are defined as: Emerging (.1) – starting to be shown, new skills are emerging Strengthening (.2) – beginning to do this more often – the child repeats skills learned Secure (.3) – they can now use embedded skills confidently. Definitions are not intended to be related to the number of statements achieved within a stage.

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Recording Group Progress (continued)

This screen can also be filled by typing rather than selecting each dropdown. To do this, click on the first dropdown and use the keyboard to type the value, then use the tab key to move to the next dropdown 2. Repeat this until all the dropdowns have

the correct stage values. This process does not have to be completed in one session. It can be spread over the reporting period if required.

Click Save to submit the report (there

will be a chance to review before it is locked); or

click Cancel to return to the reporting overview without saving any information.

Please remember that the system will log out after 30 minutes and unsaved data will be lost. Save this screen at regular intervals if it will take a long time to complete. Information entered will be saved as at that date. To enter data for a previous period the child’s age must be adjusted to reflect that assessment period.

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Reviewing Group Progress Once a record is saved, this review screen will show. There are three options from this screen: 1. Submit and Lock - will submit the

record and lock it against further editing. This is the final chance to check the record before submitting it and it becomes locked. This should be completed by the end of the assessment period.

2. Edit Now - will allow the record to be edited to amend any progress stages.

3. Edit Later - will save the record and allow editing to be done later.

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Progress Reports Select the orange Run Reports panel on the Dashboard to output a report.

1. Select the Reporting Period the report covers from the dropdown menu.

2. Select the Key Person you want to report on.

3. Select any Child Option if required

Click Start to output the report;

or

Click Cancel to return to the Dashboard overview without saving any information.

The report will show individual aspects along the bottom and the number of children on the left. Each bar (aspect) is divided into 3 sections showing the number of children:

Below stage/age expected (red)

At stage/age expected (blue)

Above stage/age expected (purple)

System Development This system is in development and more reports will be made available soon. Any feedback is welcomed via the support link.

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Key to Areas and Aspects

PSED - Personal, Social & Emotional

Development

MR - Making Relationships

SC - Self Confidence & Self

Awareness

MF - Managing Feelings & Behaviour

PD - Physical Development

MH - Moving & Handling

HS - Health & Self-care

CL - Communication & Language

LA - Listening & Attention

U - Understanding

S - Speaking

L - Literacy

R - Reading

W - Writing

M - Mathematics

N - Numbers

SS - Shape, Space & Measures

UW - Understanding the World

PC - People & Communities

TW - The World

T - Technology

EAD - Expressive Arts & Design

EM - Exploring and using Media

& Materials

BI - Being Imaginative

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Privacy Notice Use of EYFS Group Monitoring Tool data by West Sussex County Council (WSCC).

The primary purpose of the monitoring tool is to produce an effective and simple tool for settings to use. Each setting

owns the Data it has entered and can be used for statutory assessment processes, supervision, training and planning for best quality practice, including transition and working with other professionals.

Data will be collected by OFSTED Unique Reference Number (URN) to show participation levels. A report on children’s progress countywide, using anonymised data, will be made available, securely, to WSCC every 7/8 weeks.

Reports will not include any personal data about individual children or staff.

Reports will be used by WSCC to identify children’s overall performance trends in different parts of the county, in all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. The reports will also be used to monitor trends and

support better opportunities for children, in particular vulnerable groups – Children Looked After (CLA), those who have been allocated 2 Year old Free Entitlement funded places, children with additional needs and children with English

as an additional language. The percentage of children across the county, in participating settings, who have undergone the statutory 2 Year Check will also be monitored through this process.

The aggregated data used for the reports will be broken down by postcode into: whole county, geographical localities and Children and Family Centre areas. Use of the data is restricted to teams within the Early Childhood Service (ECS).

These include Children and Family Centres, who provide family support in the community, and the Early Years and Childcare Team, who support quality improvement in settings and run Network Meetings with Schools and Private, Voluntary and Independent Settings for 0-5 year olds.

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