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Guidance on the progress check at age two

The Department for Education (DfE) has published new early years foundation stage (EYFS) guidance to provide support for early years practitioners when completing the progress check at age two.

This non-statutory guidance will help all early years practitioners working with children between the ages of two and three to make an accurate assessment of a child’s development and work closely with parents and other professionals to put in place appropriate support and intervention where it is needed.

New videos on the three literacy resources on the DfE's Help for Early Years Providers online service have now been made available to view. The videos, focusing on reading comprehension, exploring words and writing, complete a suite of videos made available for all areas of learning.

The service aims to support childminders and staff in Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) settings to understand and implement the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) reforms.

The Starting Well Partnership supports families, parents, children and young people across Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏͼ¿â to lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives. There is advice on parental wellbeing, courses and further learning for parents and carers, a link to ‘Parent Talk’ (Action for Children) and lots more information which you may find helpful.

DfE Development Matters is non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage applicable from September 2021. Development Matters is for all early years practitioners, for childminders and staff in nurseries, nursery schools, and nursery and reception classes in school. 

Birth to 5 Matters will support practitioners in all their statutory responsibilities within the EYFS areas of learning and development and educational programmes, and to help children make progress toward the Early Learning Goals (ELGs). 

• Framework for Evaluating Provision for Looked After Children (PDF)
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 - This guidance from The National Strategies addresses these questions and clarifies the role of adults who support and enhance young children’s learning.

 - The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has changed. Find guidance and practical support to help you with the changes. These resources are for childminders, nursery leaders and pre-school practitioners.

Birth to three matters, a Strong Child, Me, Myself and I

This focuses on realisation of own individuality including growing awareness of self, realising s/he is separate and different from others, recognising personal characteristics and preferences and finding out what s/he can do.

- This guidance from the DfE is for primary schools, ITT partnerships.  It focuses on the early stages of teaching reading and sets out some of the research underpinning the importance of talk, stories, and systemic synthetic phonics (SSP) in the teaching of reading

This set of resource materials from  is intended to help practitioners working with children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, to plan their mathematics provision and help children to secure some of the key mathematical ideas that they will use throughout the rest of their lives.

, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Surrey. 

The toolkit is aimed at supporting practitioners with spatial reasoning, as in the new EYFS Mathematical Educational Programme. Following consultation, the toolkit includes videos and posters, as well as a learning trajectory for children from birth to 7. 

Reflecting on the recent high-profile child deaths, Emma David outlines why it is important to listen to the voice of the child and how we can do this.

• Characteristics of Effective Learning (words to help) (PDF)
• Early Years Pathway for Social Workers (PDF)
• Introduction to the role of the Early Years Area Learning Advocate (PDF)

Promoting positive behaviour management (PDF)
We have produced this guidance document on promoting positive behaviour and understanding aggressive behaviour in early years settings.

• Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏͼ¿â Early Years Child Voice Guidance (PDF)
• Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏͼ¿â EYFS SMART targets (Word)
• EYFS Assessment areas Guidance (PDF)
• Guidance for completion of SEND section of PEP (Word)

 How local authorities (LAs) and early years settings should provide the entitlement for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds.

Inclusive practice and effective support for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disability should underpin all early years approaches to implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (2021). This document has a particular focus on supporting children with Special Educational Needs and or Disabilities (SEND) and their families. The aim of this document is to provide information, exemplars, and links to relevant tools and/or services that will enhance practitioners’ knowledge and skills when working collaboratively with children with SEND and their families. 

 have produced resources to support learning at home.

 makes beautiful music for young ears, through high quality interactive musical experiences for babies, toddlers and their grown-ups.

 is an award winning inclusive sensory musical theatre.  The resources available are intended to be used by families as positive activities that support mental health and emotional well-being.  As a general rule of thumb, if you like CBeebies’ style of content, then these packs are for you.

Curriculum focused independent learning resource from  with over 120 learning activities all planned and prepared. With a combination of independent and collaborative learning activities, the home learning books provide a great opportunity for parents to learn with their children.

 is an internally acclaimed, award winning training, research and consultancy company to help early educators, cultural leaders, child minders and families develop relational approached to creative play, leadership, teaching and learning.

on 15 January the Department for Education (DfE), in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), will launch the Better Health Start for Life 'Little Moments Together' Campaign. The campaign will aim to educate parents and carers about the importance of brain development in the first 5 years of a child's life, and the crucial role they play as parents and carers, with advice and tips available on the website.

 for support guidance for families whilst developing their 2 to 4 year olds communication skills, a comprehensive set of expert but fun and friendly guides, designed for parents, carers and the whole family.

 has a Blog called Supporting parents to undertake brilliant book talk which gives ideas on how to advise parents on how they can talk to their children about their reading book.

. Parenting young children can be tough at the best of times and during this strange period in our history it can feel even more bewildering and stressful. That's why we are really pleased to be able to offer parents various free online sessions and courses. All  courses are delivered by professional early years experts to help you through this time and to learn more about their children's development, options include Let's Learn Together @ Home, Parent Connect, Let's Get Ready for School.

. A collection of short films from BBC Teach presented by Dr Radha Moghil that explore a whole range of feelings and emotions, as well as providing talking points and tools to feel better.

 these resources were commissioned by the Government and are a wealth of ideas and video clips from all ages from 0 to 5 to help children learn.

 has great ideas to help your baby and your children with their Development Movement Play (DMP).

 for sensory recipes.

 has ideas to show parents how their child will learn to read at school and how they can help at home

. The children's mental health charity, Place2Be, has launched a new website aimed at helping parents with typical situations they can find themselves in with their children.  Advice can be found on over forty topics including: Understanding sibling rivalry, My child is lying, what does it mean, what should I do?, My child has trouble going to sleep, My child says ‘I hate you!’, Cultural identity: who am I?

 is a UK based Dance company that makes highly visual performances for children and adults .  The Night Tree Films are suitable for ages 3-7.  

. Online parenting courses are a series of  resources for parents and carers who want to learn more about sensitive and effective parenting and building a positive relationship with their child. Parents are also helped to understand how they can influence their relationship with their child through play.

 bring you a collection of creative resources and imaginative activities for families at home and schools. The site also includes resources for early years.

 is an exciting new You Tube channel for babies, toddlers and very young children with and without additional needs

 is a long-term action research programme stretching over 25 years.  Babies should be aged between 3 and 12 months and families need to be living in certain areas of Leicester.

. This guide is for parents and carers of children from birth to five years old. It will help you find out more about your child’s learning and development in the EYFS.