Is your Early Years setting assessing progress against the new 2021 EYFS?

The introduction of EYFS 2021 means that children’s progress needs to be assessed against a whole new set of criteria! This change poses a huge challenge for foundation stage assessment. Great news! Our assessment and evidence products can be used to assess ALL children in your Early Years setting against the new Early Years Foundation Stage 2021 and to demonstrate their progress using photo/video evidence of learning.

Early Years assessment frameworks based on Development Matters 2020 and the EYFS Framework 2021

For children working at Age Related Expectations

Our Development Matters framework has been created to reduce the burden on paperwork and assessment. So it’s quick and easy to assess progress.

For children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The levels in Development Matters 2020 are very broad. This makes it hard to demonstrate the small steps of progress made by children with SEND who are working below the level of a 3 year old.

The new levelling structure in our Early Steps 2021 framework splits ‘birth to 3’ into 8 levels. This enables settings that have children with SEND to show their progress and help profile their needs.

Our assessment and evidence management for Early Years has been designed to help you demonstrate the progress made by ALL children in your setting

A great alternative to EExAT

Are you looking for an alternative to EExAT for your Early Years progress tracking? With EExAT closing, we know schools will be searching for a new EYFS progress tracker they can get up and running quickly. Our EYFS tracking system Connecting Steps is the best alternative to EExAT to show progress for ALL your EYFS pupils. It’s easy to switch from EExAT to Connecting Steps, find out more here.

Easily link digital photo and video evidence of learning to children’s assessments to demonstrate achievements

capture evidence of learning with Evisense

Use our evidence management software, Evisense to securely capture photo and video evidence of learning for your EYFS assessment grid

Teacher observations are key to preschool assessment and to show progress made by children in nursery and reception classes.

Easily link this digital evidence of learning to children’s assessments in Connecting Steps to demonstrate their achievements. Click on the button below to find out more.

Evisense

Is it time to rethink your Early Years assessment?

Find out more about how to quickly and easily show progress for ALL children in your setting

Need quick and easy assessment ‘on the go’?

It’s super quick and easy to input and access children’s EYFS 2021 assessments using Connecting Steps

Our assessment software has a fresh new navigation that’s quick, easy and user friendly
Switch between a desktop, laptop and iPad – everything looks the same
Assessment tracker input is much quicker than before
New filtering helps teachers quickly get to the information they need
A child’s current level is shown when adding new assessments – so it’s quick and easy to update
Users can set their own favourites to make navigation even faster (pick up where you left off)
Flags up if assessment is being added in the wrong year/cohort/framework, to help make sure assessments are inputted correctly

Find out more about our assessment frameworks for Early Years

get sample pages

Spending hours cutting and sticking in a learning journal to give a full picture of a child’s achievements?

Try our simple and affordable digital early learning journal – Evisense

Easily link digital photo and video evidence captured using Evisense to children’s assessments in Connecting Steps to demonstrate achievements
Securely store photos, videos, audio recordings and written observations
to ‘Tell The Story’ of each child’s time with you
Label evidence with the Characteristics of Effective Learning each child is demonstrating and identify the best ways of supporting them
Demonstrate even the smallest steps of progress made by children with SEND to inform the level of support they will need in the future
Visit the Evisense website for more on the benefits of using Evisense in Early Years settings

Get a FREE 3 month Evisense trial

try evisense for free

What do Teachers think?

Easily link evidence to the Characteristics of Effective Learning

“Using Evisense, we can securely capture and store evidence of learning and link it directly to the Characteristics of Effective Learning for EYFS. It is straightforward and easy to use.”

Yvonne Skillern

Primary Leader, Highfield Ely Academy

Crucial in securing our outstanding OFSTED rating

“Connecting Steps helped us strengthen our assessment procedures and tighten our planning. It was crucial in securing our outstanding OFSTED Inspection!”

Lisa Bird

Headteacher, Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School

End the frustrating process of printing, gluing and collating evidence

“I love using Evisense to organise my evidence of learning digitally. Before Evisense, evidence was static. It sat in a folder, I felt frustrated by the process of printing and gluing and collating. It was costly and not time efficient”

Lindsay Ireland

Class Teacher, Firpark School

Easy to use and clear to track progress

“Early Steps 2021 is easy to use and it is clear to track the progress of the children.”

Stephanie Thompson

Class Teacher, Great Arley School

Manage your EYFS assessments & evidence of learning in one easy to use system!

Connecting Steps assessment screen shots

Find out more about the advantages of using one inclusive assessment system

Early Steps 2021 Sample Pages for children with SEND

Email : hello@connectingsteps.com Telephone : 01252 870133