This article focuses on the assessment of children aged three to four in publicly funded pre-school provision in the year immediately before they begin compulsory primary education.

There are no statutory requirements for early years practitioners to assess children during pre-school education in Northern Ireland. However, the Curricular Guidance for Pre-School Education, which all providers in receipt of government-funding are expected to follow, promotes the assessment of children’s learning through day-to-day observations of, and interactions with, children in a range of situations. Pages 8-10 of the guidance, which was originally produced by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in 2006 and updated in 2018, include the following recommendations.

i)   ‘Regular, skilful observations’ are essential for effective planning and assessment for learning.

ii)  Day-to-day observations of children over a period of time and in a variety of contexts give staff an insight into their needs, experiences, interests, thinking, strengths and areas for development, and information from these observations should be recorded regularly and systematically.

iii) Information should be shared with parents / guardians / carers so that they have an understanding of their child’s progress, and are encouraged to contribute to observations through formal or informal comments.

iv) Formal reporting should also occur, involving individual meetings with parents / guardians / carers at which staff should suggest ways that they can support their child’s learning.

The guidance also recommends that, before a child moves to primary school, relevant information about his or her progress in learning should, with parental consent, be shared with the school so that primary teachers can begin to plan appropriately for the child.

Developing a measure of children’s development 

The Draft Programme for Government Framework 2016-2021 of the Northern Ireland Government sets out a broad range of outcomes including Outcome 12: ‘We give our children and young people the best start in life’. Steps to achieve this include developing a measure of the percentage of children in their immediate pre-school year (three- to four-year-olds) who are at the appropriate stage of development, and putting in place timely interventions for those children not yet at this level.

Article last updated December 2020.