ABSTRACT
In good early years practice, practitioners pay close attention to what children do and say as they play and learn, and use this as the basis for their planning. They also use it in order to build up a picture of each child as a learner, and share their findings, formally, through reports to parents and to receiving teachers. This tracking and documenting of what children do is very important and highly skilled. Observation as a teaching tool and part of the planning cycle has been in place for many years, starting with the work of Susan Isaacs at the Maltings School. The Foundation Stage Profile (introduced in 2003) lays down a structure built partly on observation, to offer a common framework for tracking progress in the foundation stage. It replaces previous statutory baseline assessment on entry to primary school. If you are not familiar with it, you can obtain a copy by contacting the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (https://www.qca.org.uk/).
