Overview - Using the EYFS Tracker to Evidence Children's Progress

What is the purpose of the EYFS Tracker?

• The EYFS Tracker is designed to be used as a guide to support you in effective observation, assessment and planning of your children.
• It can be used as an on entry assessment and tracking tool to provide a broad snapshot of children's progress throughout their time at your setting.
• Initially, you may find it more appropriate to focus the prime areas of learning and development (PSED, PD and CL) and/or other areas chosen by your setting.

When should you start using the Tracker?

• Your observation and assessment should be started as soon as the child joins your setting, regardless of the time of year.

There are two ways of recording progress in the EYFS Tracker. Do we have to complete age stage information and also tick the early years outcome statements that have been achieved?

• No, the EYFS Tracker has been designed to be as flexible as possible. You may choose to record progress through the selection of the coloured age stages on the Results page, or to tick the early years outcome statements (and attach evidence) by clicking on the Magnifying Glass "Evidence" icon at the right of the child's results. In practice, virtually all of the users of the EYSF Tracker carry out age stage assessments, and around half use the evidence section.

How often should we update tracking information?

• You can change how often you enter progress data in the EYFS Tracker. You can enter data once a term, or once a term plus an on entry point (at the start of the autumn term), or 6 times a year (i.e. twice per term). Note that you can copy forward results from previous assessments to speed up the data entry process.
• If you are tracking your children once per term, the assessments should be made for all children at approximately the same point in each term so that the assessments are evenly distributed over the year.
• If you wish to record progress by showing the relevant early years outcomes achieved, tick each item whenever you are confident that the child is achieving that item, and set the date appropriately. If you have witnessed some evidence of the achievement but are not confident that the child is securely demonstrating the relevant behaviour, you can add notes against the outcome, and then tick the outcome once the achievement is secure.

Does evidence have to be uploaded into the website?

• Any paper records you hold can remain your supporting evidence if you prefer, although if you upload your evidence you can use this to automatically produce Learning Journey booklets from the "Learning Journey" section. You need only upload evidence or comments to this system if it is helpful to you.

Who should contribute to the evidence?

• All adults involved with the child should contribute to the ongoing gathering of information.
• The parents' or carers' contributions and knowledge should be taken into account and recorded.
• The child's views should also be taken into account.

Using the My Children Section

The child details can then be used to analyse your children in the Analysis section (for example to assess the relative progress of boys, or ethnic minority children, and show the narrowing of gaps).

a) To view your children:

• Select the academic year, year group and (if applicable) the teaching group for the children you wish to view and click 'Refresh'�. Note that you can select 'All Year Groups'� and 'All Teaching Groups'� if you wish to view all children in a particular academic year. Note that Nursery/Childminder settings usually have the Year Group option disabled.

b) To sort your children:

• Click on any of the blue field headers to sort the details in that column. Click again to reverse the sort order.

c) To change child details

• Simply click on the cell you wish to change. Name and UPN are free text fields, others are limited to a drop-down list. On most computers, changes are automatically saved as soon as you make them, however, you may wish to click the "Save Changes" button for peace of mind!

d) To add a new child:

• On the Main Details tab, type a first name and surname into the yellow box at the bottom of the page, and add any other details you wish. Note that Nursery/Childminder settings must also provide a date of birth for each child. Click 'Save Changes'� to confirm. You may then choose to click the 'Additional Details'� tab to provide extra information on the child. Postcode is required if you wish to use the EYFS Tracker to submit EYFSP results to your local authority or the DfE.
• Note that you will receive a warning message if you enter a first name and surname combination that matches another child already present in your setting. You can still choose to go ahead and create this child if required.

e) To add teaching group information:

• You can enter your own teaching group information and assign children to these groups. This allows you to filter children by teaching group in My Children and Results, and also analyse the progress by teaching group). Click on the "Teaching Groups" tab and enter a group name in the "New Group Name" box, and click "Add Group". Now, when you click on the "Additional Details" tab you can assign this teaching group to any of your children by clicking on a cell in the Teaching Group column.

f) To add notes:

• Click on the 'Notepad'� icon towards the right of the child row. Enter your notes and click 'Save Changes'�. If notes already exist for a child, a green dot appears in the notepad icon to remind you that there are notes there. You can use this feature to share information between teachers.
• You can also use this section to record 'Next Steps' and 'Characteristics of Effective Learning' for your children (see Next Steps/Characteristics of Effective Learning section)
• A red line will appear under spelling mistakes.

g) When a child leaves your setting:

• When a child leaves your school or setting you can share their information with their new school (assuming the new school or setting is using the EYFS Tracker) or simply record that they have left your setting. Click the Pupil Status tick icon at the right hand side of the child information on the Main Details tab, and then select the school or setting that the child is moving to. If the child is not moving to a school or setting in the list, select 'DELETED'�. You should also select the last term for which you want to show results for this child. Click 'Save'� once you have made the required selections.
• The system will no longer ask for results for this child after the term selected, but any earlier results for the child will be kept to ensure historical analysis is accurate. Alternatively, you can select the option to completely remove them from the Tracker.
• If a child re-joins your setting you can also use this menu to reinstate them which restores their old data and allows you to enter new data.

h) Changing a child's year group:

• If you are a school or nursery using year groups in the Tracker, at the end of each academic year, your children are automatically moved up one year group. However, if you wish to change a child's year group manually (for example in the middle of the year), you can do so by clicking the Pupil Status tick icon at the end of the child's row in My Children. Then, click the 'Change Child Year Group' tab, select the new year group, and click 'Save'. Note that this will also move any results data associated with the child.

i) Importing child details from your school's MIS:

• It is easy to manually add children's details in the My Children section. However, if your management information system (MIS) allows exporting of CTF files you can use this to quickly import children's details into the EYFS Tracker.
• To import a CTF file, click the blue 'Import Children from CTF File'� button at the top right of the My Children page. Click, 'Choose File'� and locate and select the CTF file you exported from your MIS.
• You will also be asked if you want to assign the children's cohort manually, or calculate it based on their date of birth. Click 'Continue'� once you have selected the required option.
• If the CTF file you have selected is valid, the system will confirm the children you are importing before importing them into the system.

Tips & Good practice

• The more data you include here, the more ways in which you are able to analyse your children in the Analysis section of the Tracker
• Use teaching groups to help filter your children if the year groups don't make sense in your setting. For example, you could create a teaching group called "Arrived in last 12 months", "Toddlers" or "Sarah's children" and filter your children accordingly.

Adding Teaching Groups

Editing or Deleting Teaching Groups

Using the Results Section

Each of the children you set up on the My Children page are listed here, unless you have recorded the child as having left. You can filter on academic year, year group, teaching group and support type to show only the children you are interested in.

a) To view your children:

• Select the academic year, year group and (if applicable) the teaching group and/or support type for the children you wish to view and click "Refresh". Note that you can select "All Year Groups" and "All Teaching Groups" if you wish to view all children in a particular academic year.

b) To sort your children:

• Click on any of the blue field headers to sort the details in that column. Click again to reverse the sort order.

c) To add or change result information:

• The 17 aspects from the EYFS Framework are split between the seven areas of learning (you can navigate between these by clicking on the blue tabs). For each child you can select the development stage they are at in each aspect (which are those in the EYFS Practice Guidance).
• To change the age stage, simply click on the cell you wish to change, and select from the drop-down list. On most computers, changes are automatically saved as soon as you make them, however, you may wish to click the 'Save Changes'� button for peace of mind!
• You can additionally split each age stage into three groups (High, Medium or Low) to show a finer level of progress. The precise interpretation of these 'sub-stages'� can vary between settings, but broadly Low relates to beginning the age stage, Medium relates to working securely within, and High relates to nearly ready for the next stage.
• By default, each child is put in the middle of the age stage ('M'�). To change this sub-stage, simply click on the letter to change between 'L'�, 'M'�, and 'H'�.

d) Copy results information from previous assessments:

• Instead of having to re-enter data from scratch each term, you can click the 'Copy Results From Previous Assessment'� button at the foot of the Results page. This will copy over any results supplied in the previous assessment period for each result that is 'Not Assigned'� in the selected Area of Learning.
• Once you have selected this option you need to change only the age stages that have changed.
• Note that you need to click this button for each Area of Learning if you wish to copy the whole results profile from a previous assessment.

e) Providing evidence for your decisions:

• If you wish to use the EYFS Tracker to demonstrate the reasons why you have assessed a child to be at a particular stage, click the magnifying glass (evidence) icon on the right of the child row to assign early years outcome information and add attachments as evidence (separate help is available for that section).

f) Printing results information:

• If you wish to print out information from the results page, click on the "View Report For All Aspects'� button at the bottom of the results list. This will give you a formatted version of all the results information for your selected cohort. From here you can easily print the information. Note that if you wish to print the background colours and are using Internet Explorer you may need to change your settings to have them appear on the printer - click on the "Tools" menu, select "Internet Options" and click the "Advanced" tab. Scroll down to "Printing" and tick the "Print background colours and images" and click "OK". You may also need to select a landscape view from the File menu and 'Page Setup'�.

g) Tracking from on entry:

• By default, in the EYFS Tracker, you track results information three times per year (autumn, spring, summer). However, you can also select an option to additionally add progress information 'On Entry', at the start of the autumn term. To do this, go to 'My Account', and click 'Edit Details'. Under term settings, click '4 times'. This means you will have a fourth option in the drop-down on the Results page, and analysis reports will include this fourth option. Alternatively, you can choose '6 times' and you can use Autumn 1 as the On Entry assessment, or if a child entered at a different point in the year, use any of the 6 time points for their first assessment.

h) Recording 'Next Steps':

• You can enter overall 'Next Steps' observations and priorities for each child by clicking the notepad icon on the results page. These can be included on the Learning Journey reports or output in the Analysis section. See the 'Editing Next Steps' section for more details.

j) Recording 'Characteristics of Effective Learning':

• Enter further information on how each child has been learning in the three categories shown by clicking on the notepad icon on the results page. You are able to optionally include these notes in the Learning Journey reports in the Analysis section.

Tips & Good practice

There are a number of visual aids on this page that help you to consider the relevant development stage to assign:

• You can hover over any development stage selected to view the early years outcomes from the EYFS Practice Guidance that relate to that stage.
• The age in months at the end of the term is shown to the right of each child's name.
• Development stages where the end month is lower than the child's age at the end of the term selected are highlighted in red (for example, if a child is 52 months old at the end of the spring term, but they have 30-50 months selected, this will be highlighted. Note that this feature is not available in all web browsers, but works in Internet Explorer).

Using the Evidence Section

In the Evidence section you can show when each child achieved a particular early years outcome, plus add attachments (for example photos) to show specific evidence of children's development.

You access the Evidence section by clicking on the Magnifying Glass (evidence) icon on the right of child results in the Results section.

a) To denote when early years outcomes are achieved

• The outcome for each assessment scale in the selected area of learning are shown under each tab, split by the relevant development stage (if you wish to view a different area of learning, click "Back" and change the area of learning on the Results page).
• To denote that a child is capable of a particular outcome, simply click the tick box in the Achieved column next to the statement. The date achieved defaults to today's date, though you can change this by clicking in the drop-down boxes.
• On most computers, changes are automatically saved as soon as you make them, however, you may wish to click the "Save Changes" button for peace of mind!

b) To attach evidence (e.g. Photos)

• If you wish to add some specific evidence or add extra notes to show exactly why you believe a particular early years outcome has been achieved, click on the paper clip icon next to the relevant development matter. This icon displays a green star when attachments have been added for that outcome, and a green 'T' when comments have been made. Further help on this is available on the Uploads Attachments page.
• Any type of attachment can be uploaded to the website, including videos, photos, Word documents, PDFs and so on. The only limitation is the file size – the Tracker will let you know if the size is too big!
• Photo attachments and any notes you make on children can optionally be added to any Learning Journey outputs which you create.

Tips & Good practice

• The blue striped bar on the left hand side of the page shows the age stage you have selected on the Results page - this is a useful aid to check that the child has achieved the outcomes up to the stage you have selected.

Using the Evidence Uploads Section

a) To add an attachment

• Simply click on the "Choose File" button and search for a file on your computer or network. You can also select the date that the evidence relates to. Once you are happy with the file and selected date, click "Upload Attachment". If the file is too large for the system, it is possible that the file will not be accepted; however this is only likely for large videos or very large photos.
• You can add as many evidence attachments as you like for each child and outcome.
• You can use your tablet or smartphone device to take and upload pictures directly if you wish. When you click on the button to add new evidence your device may also offer the option of taking a new photo, which can then be uploaded immediately.
• Note that if you are using an Apple device you should ensure that the 'Home' button is on the right hand side of the screen for pictures which are 'Landscape' oriented to ensure that the images appear the right way up in the Learning Journey outputs.

b) To view/rotate an attachment

• You can click on an attachment name to open the attachment (note that you cannot edit the attachment in this way – you will need to reattach the changed attachment if you want to do this).
• If you wish to rotate an image that has already been uploaded you can click the 'Rotate Image' button. The buttons allow you to rotate the image left or right and the preview image updates to show the resulting effect. The changes are stored automatically.

c) Sharing attachments between children

• Once you have uploaded an attachment you can assign this to any child in the same cohort as the child with the attachment. Click on "associate this evidence with other children" to bring up the list of children in the same cohort. Then tick those you wish to share the attachment with, and click "edit". The attachment will then appear when you are viewing the attachments for the selected child(ren).

d) Adding evidence notes

• You may also choose to add some notes for the child and outcome. These can be used to explain the attachments, or even just provide further information if no attachment is available (for example, "I saw Johnny on the climbing frame and delighting in this new experience". Simply type into the notes box and click 'Save Notes'�. We recommend that you put your initials after the note in the event that many staff members add notes to a child.
  

Next Steps and other Extra Notes

You can use this section to store next steps text and other note information about your children, including:

• Internal notes about the children which can be any information as necessary to your setting. We recommend that you enter your initials and the date when you enter notes. This will be important if lots of members of staff use the website.
• Next Steps information relating to the development priorities identified for each child in your setting. These can be included on Learning Journey outputs and also used in the Analysis section

Editing Characteristics of Effective Learning

In this section you are able to expand upon your observations and give details on how each child has been learning under the headings ‘Play and exploring’, ‘Active learning’ and ‘Creating and thinking critically’.

Information entered here can be included on Learning Journey outputs

Using the Support Types Section

Support types in the EYFS Tracker are a way of identifying appropriate support for children, recording basic support details, and then assessing the impact that the support has had on the child's development. You assign support either from the My Children section, or when you are entering information in the Results section. You can use pre-defined support types or create your own.

a) Viewing available support types

Click on My Children then click on the Support Groups tab. The list of support groups displayed will include pre-defined support types (set centrally) and any support types you have created yourself. You can also see which areas of learning the support types relate to (represented by the tick marks).

b) Adding new support types

Click on the "Add New Support Type" button at the bottom right of the current list of support types. A new box will appear allowing you to enter the name of the support type, and tick the areas of learning that the support type relates to. Click "Save" once the details have been entered. This new support type will appear in the list of "user defined" support types above.

Note that you can edit any of the user-defined support types that you have created by clicking "Edit Support Type" to the right of the support type. You can change both the name of the support type, and the area(s) of learning it relates to.

c) Assigning support to children

There are three ways of assigning support to children:

• Method 1: In My Children, click on the Support Types tab and select 'Add/Edit Children'� next to the support type you wish to assign to children. If the support type has already been assigned to children, you will see them listed here. Click the 'Assign more children'� option at the bottom of the list. Use the filters provided (academic year, year group and/or teaching group) to identify groups of children that cover the children you wish to assign support to, and click 'Refresh'�. You can then click in the 'Assign Support'� tick boxes to actually link the children to this support type. Click 'Save Changes'� once you have selected the children to assign the support to.
• Method 2: From the My Children section, click on either Basic Details or Additional Details. At the end of the row of child details click the cog (Support) icon. Note that the cog will turn yellow if support has already been assigned to this child. From the resulting screen you will see any existing support assigned. If you click on the 'Select Support Type...'� box in the box at the foot of the list you can select a support type to assign. Click 'Save Changes'� once you have selected the support type. Note also that you can filter available support types by area of learning by using the 'Support Area'� drop-down in the top-right.
• Method 3: When entering information in the Results section you may identify that a particular child is under the expected age of development for a particular assessment scale. If you wish to assign this child to additional support in the current area of learning, you can click on the cog (Support) icon at the right of the child results row. From here you should follow the instructions for Method 2 (although note that the list of available support types will already be filtered for support that relates to the relevant area of learning).

When you use any of the methods above, if you wish, you can enter a brief additional description of the support and a start date. Once the support ends, you can choose whether to add an end date for the support, and a brief description of the outcome.

d) Assessing the impact of support given

You can use the Analysis section and filter reports on particular support groups to compare the performance of children receiving a particular support type, and those who did not. View the separate help in the Analysis section.

e) Removing support types

Click on the Support Types tab in My Children. Click the red X right of the support type. You can only delete user-defined support types.

The system will not let you delete a support type if children are already assigned to it (if you attempt to do this, you will be provided with a link to delete children related to the support type).

You can remove individual child support by clicking select 'Add/Edit Children'� from the support type list and clicking the red X.

Tips & Good practice

• Your Local Authority may be able to populate support given for your children centrally by contacting us. For example, the authority could populate information on the activities the child participated in at a Children's Centre.

Using the Analysis Menu

The reports are grouped into various categories – some will show information for one child at a time, some will aggregate data together to provide summary analysis.

To choose a report to run, click on the Analysis option on the toolbar and select a report from the options available. Each report has a thumbnail to give you an indication of the kind of output you can expect.

Running Reports

a) To apply filters and select the data you wish to see:

Most of the reports allow you to select from a range of filters to restrict the information viewed, or to analyse particular groups of children. Simply select the information you wish to view in the filter boxes, and click "Run Report". In particular, you should ensure that the Academic Year and Year Group filters are displaying the required information. See "Tips & Good Practice" below for more suggestions.

Click the plus icon to view additional filters such as ethnicity, gender and teaching group.

b) Changing report options:

The main report options include:

• Change page (small arrows on the left hand side of the option bar): This allows you to view different pages of reports that spread over more than one page – for example, some individual reports have a different child on each page
• Zoom (% drop-down): This allows you to zoom in or out on the report, but we recommend you leave this at 100%. This option only appears in Internet Explorer.
• Export ("Select a format" drop-down): You can select Acrobat (PDF) file, or Excel from here and then click "Export" to save the report. Exporting to Excel allows you to copy and paste graphs and text into other documents (e.g. Child reports). Note that each page of the report is placed on a different tab of the spreadsheet.
• Print (Printer Icon): You can send the report to your printer using this button. Note that the first time you run this the website may try to install a small piece of software - you may need to be logged in as an administrator to allow this. If there is no printer icon, trying using Internet Explorer, or alternatively export to PDF then print the PDF

c) Navigating the report:

• In addition to the Change Page options, you can change your view of the report by using the vertical scroll bars. Note that on most screens you will have two vertical scroll bars; on some reports you may have to scroll down on the right most scroll bar to get to the bottom of the left scroll bar!

Tips & Good practice

• Using the filters on the reports page allows you to drill-down and understand your children more, and work out where you may need to focus resources. We recommend that you start with a top-level picture (select a whole year group) and then experiment with different filters to drill-down and explore particular groups of children. For example, you can identify whether boys or girls are performing better at particular assessment scales, whether children eligible for free school meals are performing as well as those who aren't, or which ethnic groups are underperforming in your setting.

Creating Learning Journeys

The Learning Journey section allows you to produce a report on individual children to share with parents or other colleagues. If you enter early years outcome information into the EYFS Tracker and attach photos, you may be able to use this feature to replace any paper versions of Family Books or Learning Journeys you produce.

Note that the reports only work if you have ticked early years outcome statements in the add Evidence section of Results. Also, remember that additional child analysis reports can be produced from the Analysis section of the EYFS Tracker.

a) To create a standard child report:

• On the Learning Journey page, choose the cohort which the child you wish to produce the report for is in by selecting the relevant academic year and year group.
• Tick the box next to the child name you want.
• Select the date range for which you wish to show outcomes achieved by selecting a start and end date. For example, you could choose to produce a report that shows all outcomes recorded as achieved in a particular academic year.
• Click 'Generate Report'�.

b) Changing report options:

You have a number of options you can change if you wish:

• To change the report title, type into the relevant box. If you leave this blank, the report will be produced just with the child's name at the top.
• To add an introductory paragraph to the report, click the 'Show Header Text'� box and type into the box underneath. This could be an overall statement specific to one child or simply an introduction to what the report shows. Note that you can create a report for more than one child at a time, although the introductory paragraph will be the same for each child.
• To show a cover title page (including your setting logo, if you have uploaded one), tick the 'add title / logo page' box.
• To show any photos that you have uploaded against individual development matter statements, tick the 'show evidence images uploaded'� box
• To show any notes you recorded against the development matters achieved, tick the 'Show notes related to EY Outcome observations'� box.
• To show any 'Next Steps' you have entered on the system, tick the 'show next steps entered' box.
• You can optionally choose to show full-sized images in the report rather than thumbnails, tick the 'use full-sized photos instead of thumbnails' box for this.
• To show notes entered in Observations on Characteristics of Effective Learning, tick the ‘Show Observations on Characteristics of Effective Learning’ box.
• To only show early years outcomes from a particular area of learning or aspect, untick the relevant aspect boxes. Clicking the '+'� sign will allow you to select certain aspects from particular areas of learning.

c) Viewing the report:

• Click 'Generate Report'� to view any changes to the options you have made.
• If the report spans more than one page (for example, if the report has more than one child), click the left or right arrows at the top of the report to scroll between pages.

d) Saving, sharing or printing reports:

Depending on your web browser, you can choose from a number of methods of exporting your child report.

• To export the report for saving or emailing, select the file format you want from the drop-down list (either PDF or Excel) and click Export. You can then save the report produced in a location of your choosing, and email it to a parent or other teacher.
• To print the report, simply click the printer icon at the top right of the report. Note that this option is only available in Internet Explorer. Alternatively you can export the report to PDF and then print that file.

Entering & Exporting EYFSP Data

The current EYFS has a seamless link between early years outcomes and the end of Reception EYFS Profile. By completing your normal tracking information in the Results section, you can automatically complete your EYFS Profile return for your Reception cohort in the summer term.

a) Viewing a summary of your FSP data

When you have completed your "age stage" tracking data for the Reception cohort for the summer (or summer 2 if using 6 terms) term, go to the Results section, and click on the 'View FSP Results Summary'� option at the bottom of the page. This shows all the results information for the summer (or summer 2) term for your Reception cohort, showing where, for each Early Learning Goal, the child is 'emerging', 'expected' or 'exceeding'. Children not yet at 'EL Goals' are shown as 'Emerging', children recorded as 'EL Goals' are shown as 'Expected', and those 'Exceeding EL Goals' are shown as 'Exceeding'. Note that, by default, this calculation takes no account of whether the child has been assessed as being high, medium or low within the age band. This can be amended using the setting found on the 'My Account' page (see Tips below).

b) Exporting summary EYFSP data

You can export your EYFSP returns in XML format to submit to the DfE (or give to your LA so they can submit on your behalf) or in Excel format. From the FSP Summary page, tick the boxes for each child for whom you want to export data. From the drop-down at the bottom of the list, select the format you want to export to; you will then be able to save and email the XML or Excel file, or import it into other compatible software.

Tips & Good practice

• You can choose how you wish to treat the 'Low' band within the 'EL Goals' category. By default it will count as 'Expected' achievement but you can change this on the 'My Account' page and force it to be treated as 'Emerging' for the purposes of the EYFSP return.
• If your local authority has access to the EYFS Tracker they can export your XML file on your behalf. You will simply need to notify them when this is ready.

Editing your details and creating new users

The My Account page is where you can edit basic details about your school or setting, and also add new users for your setting.

Editing Your Details

To change your setting details, click 'Edit Details" in the My Account page, edit the details in the relevant boxes and click 'Save Changes'� once complete. You can change:

• Your school / setting name
• Your URN (Unique reference number for your school/setting) - This is essential if you wish to use the EYFS Tracker to complete your EYFSP return (because the URN is included in the file that will be sent to the DfE).
• Your address
• You can also add your setting logo which can (optionally) be added to Learning Journey reports. From the 'Edit Details' page click the 'Add a Logo' button to get started. You can choose a file and upload this onto the system with the 'upload' button. Once a logo has been added the main setting details screen will display a preview of it.

Adding or Editing User Logins

Beneath your account details you will find the list of users that are able to access your setting's details.

To add a new user:

In the User Accounts section, click 'Add new user '�. Fill in all the required fields and click 'Add'�. The user will be able to log on with their details immediately.

To edit existing users' details:

Click on the user's name in the User Accounts section to display their details. Edit the details you wish to change and click 'Save Changes'�. You can also edit your own details in this way.

To watch the EYFS Tracker Demonstration Video, please click the large button below.