Reception is one of the most important years in a child’s educational journey.
As the culmination of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), it lays the foundations for future learning, development and wellbeing. Outcomes at the end of the EYFS are a strong predictor of later academic achievement and are associated with a range of long-term life outcomes, including future employment and lifetime earnings.
But Reception is not just the end of early years, it’s the start of school life. In this distinctive phase, teachers act as a vital bridge between nursery and primary education. This requires a huge range of specialist expertise: in child development, curriculum design, assessment, and pedagogy.
How can we support Reception teachers in this challenge? We were pleased to work with the Department for Education to produce the Excellence in Reception Teaching framework.
Here’s how we did it.
The background
Children in Reception classes are assessed at the end of the year against the Early Learning Goals (ELGs).
These assessments determine whether children have achieved a Good Level of Development (GLD) across the prime areas of learning:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
and the specific subject areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design.
As part of their Best Start in Life strategy, the Department for Education (DfE) have set a target for 75% of Reception pupils to reach that ‘Good’ level of development by 2028. If achieved, that would be an increase of 6.7 percentage points.
This ambition is particularly important for socio-economically disadvantaged pupils. By the time they enter Reception disadvantaged pupils are already estimated to be, on average, 4.6 months behind their non-disadvantaged peers.
To help make this goal a reality, the DfE are funding a new professional development programmeA programme is a package of support, including professional development, that helps early years educators to improve particular areas of practice and children’s outcomes. for Reception teachers. This programme will support reception teachers to develop their practice and deepen their understanding of the key areas of child development.
At the EEF, we’ve worked closely with the department, their expert drafting group and framework writer Claire Williams to make sure this new qualification is evidence-led.
The challenge
The unique nature of the Reception year raises an interesting challenge for evidence synthesis. Little robust research will focus exclusively on a single school year group.
So, we knew we would need to triangulate a range of evidence sources from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1 (KS1), alongside insights fromexpert practice.
This would give us the best chance of developing a framework that met the needs of Reception Teachers and had a chance of moving the dial on educational disadvantage.
The process
The DfE has published a content framework for the ‘excellence in reception teaching’ programme which sets out the content that participants will study via their chosen training provider.
The DfE worked with framework writer Claire Williams, who is Deputy Headteacher at Alexandra Park Primary School. This meant she had a rich understanding of how to translate the findings of research evidence into practices that Reception teachers can understand and deploy effectively.
Claire started by reviewing the Department’s National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) and Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Frameworks (ITTECF) to find evidence-based statements that would work for Reception teachers.
With the support of the expert drafting group, Claire consolidated these statements, adapted others, and where necessary wrote new, Reception-specific statements to develop a draft framework.
The draft was built around ‘learn that…’ statements of what teachers needed to know. These ‘learn that’ knowledge statements needed to be concise, evidence-informed, and meaningful to Reception teachers. They had to avoid overclaiming, jargon, or implying that one approach will work automatically in every classroom.
As Claire shared drafts of her new or adapted statements, we would review them against the underpinning research evidence to ensure that they reflected the findings and limitations of the studies.
In addition to checking the methodology, findings, and quality of the evidence, we also want to assess the ‘ecological validity’ of the research. In everyday terms, this means ‘to what extent were the environments, participants, and approaches of the research similar to the Reception classrooms in our schools?’
Translating the evidence
Developing these frameworks is a fundamentally collaborative process, with a shared mission to provide the best possible training and support for our Reception teachers.
Different colleagues bring different expertise in research, policy, and practice, and it’s in the tension between these elements that we’re able to produce something valuable for the system.
Simply repeating research findings is not enough. Uncritical adoption of evidence is unlikely to reduce educational disadvantage. The constructive challenge of expert reception teachers ensures that these frameworks meet the needs of our workforce.
Ultimately, the purpose of these frameworks is to provide an evidence and practice-informed foundation which training providers will use as the basis for high-quality professional development for reception teachers. Through taking part in this professional development, we hope that Reception teachers will be better equipped to meet the needs of the children in their classrooms.
Evidence translation is challenging, but it’s how we show respect for Reception teachers’ time and expertise.
By focusing professional development on the knowledge and skills that are most likely to improve pupil attainment and help close the attainment gap, we hope to help Reception teachers across the country.