Setting appropriately high expectations for young children’s development
In the Quality Mark guidance produced for schools, this element focuses on ‘target-setting’ for improving the performance of the school in reducing the number of those who underattain or, in some circumstances, underachieve.
Target-setting is expected at a range of levels covering the whole school, subject departments or curriculum areas, key stages, cohorts, and groups, as well as individual learners. This quantifiable type of target-setting is not appropriate for babies and young children.
In the context of early years settings this element has been adjusted to assess the setting’s ability to sensitively support young children to progress to the next stage of their natural development by providing them with opportunities to develop and use skills in a variety of situations and for a number of different purposes, supported by adults who help them develop the confidence to do so. It is expected than an ‘assessment for learning’ or ‘next steps’ approach will be used to improve the abilities and achievements of individual children in developing their foundation skills.