Nursery software has become an essential tool for managers and practitioners in streamlining child development tracking. Whether you are recording or approving observations, having tools to make the process time-effective and purposeful is a must.
To make tracking child development easy, you first need access to a bank chocked full of pupil progress data. Luckily, you can do that with Blossom.
In this article, we share how to track EYFS child development using Blossom’s nursery software and help centre articles.
New here? Welcome! These help centre articles might not be very helpful if you don’t have Blossom, so don’t forget to book a free demo, discover all of Blossom’s features and improve profitability in your nursery. As well as learn what all these guides are referring to!
Why do we track child development in the early years?
Parents and practitioners have the same goal – they want the child to reach expected milestones and thrive. But how can you know how far the child has come without knowing their starting point? This is why we track child development progress in nurseries.
Recording and tracking a child’s progress is complex. It’s not as simple as ticking a box to say they are secure in a skill. Practitioners who understand the value of tracking child development know they are looking for why and how the child achieved the skill.
Because, when we know the why and how behind child development, target setting, action plans and early concern identification becomes a walk in the park.
Did you know we have a feature just for EYFS tracking and learning?
How to track EYFS child development with Blossom
There are lots of different ways to track EYFS child development. You can monitor attendance, social skill development and compare progress between terms. Blossom’s features are designed to compare and track individual and cohort progress.
Tracking child development through the curriculum
Blossom has a range of different curriculums and supporting guidance to track progress against. Whether you use the newest 2021 EYFS framework or dip into the latest Development Matters guidance, you can track a child’s starting points and progress within all areas of learning and development.
For example, a child may demonstrate sitting up unattended during a settling-in session. If you judge this as a secure skill, it can be marked as a secure starting point within postural reflexes in physical development. However, if they are sitting unattended but still looking a little wobbly, you may mark the skill as emerging.
Using nursery software, these starting points are completed within seconds, saving practitioners time while collecting accurate and valuable data.
Creating child development tracking reports
Now you have your starting points for each child, you can begin to play around with the many different reports you can create. Child development reports help you track termly progress and give you an overview of attendance and specific information, such as if the child has Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND).
Blossom helps you to create progress reports easily
- Track progress through formative reports
- Create a transition report
- Generate your 2-year progress check report
- Access cohort-wide progress reports
The reports can be filtered through progress level and age bands, you can also create formative reports linked to the curriculum you follow, like the Development Matters guidance from 2021.
When exporting a formative report with Blossom, you download the selected report and choose a manager or administrator to send the PDF report to. They will receive their report via email.
Early years cohort tracking tools
Tracking every child across all seven areas of learning and development can bring a lot of paperwork! Your practitioners should regularly cohort track to notice gaps in learning and use this information to inform their planning or activities.
Blossom users have access to progress and comparison reports, helping to pinpoint where children need more activities and experiences in a particular area.
The cohort progress tracker has two options for report creation:
- The area of learning progress per term across all seven areas of learning
- Termly comparative progress against the four most recent formative reports
Early years 2-year progress check report
When a child is between 24 and 36 months, their two-year progress check will be completed and shared with parents. It is an opportunity to collate all information gathered via observations to paint an accurate picture of child development in all areas.
As you know, creating these reports can be time-consuming, which is why Blossom takes the legwork away from collating all observations made within a chosen time frame. Accessible through your Blossom Board and the learning tab, your practitioners can create two-year-old progress check reports in minutes.
Early years observations
Early years observations are vital to gather information about a child’s developmental progress. Practitioners can fall out of love with creating observations if the process is time-consuming and administratively heavy. Blossom’s observation feature is easy and simple to use, especially if you can access a handheld device like an iPad or tablet throughout the day.
Practitioners can make an observation for one child or multiple children. Saving time by adding individual observation notes to group observations. Upload supporting photos and videos to the observation easily, tagging the child in the photos (remember to check photo permissions).
When the child is tagged in the media, parents can view the observations. You have the additional option to share the observation via the Parent App, which can help improve parent partnerships.
Your practitioners can access the Parent Inbox to make home observations easy to review and add to. For example, if a parent records that their child demonstrated a new personal, social, and emotional development (PSED) skill over the weekend, you can add to the information by choosing to click ‘make full observation’.
Did you know that managers get in-app notifications when an observation observation is ready to be approved? Making the observation feedback process quick and easy.
Have Blossom and want to learn more about Blossom’s features? Our Help Centre gives up-to-date advice on using the nursery management software, with videos and screenshots to help.
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