Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is the second type of assessment made compulsory by the early years foundation stage statuary framework. Observation is key to formative assessment, practitioners should use what they observe every day to gage where the children are at, and how they can direct activities set up to allow each child to improve and develop in their own time. The EYFS Statuary Framework defines formative assessment as 'an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners observing children to understand their level of achievement, interests and learning styles, and to then shape learning experiences for each child reflecting those observations. In their interactions with children, practitioners should respond to their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress and observations that parents and carers share ' (2014).

Vicky Hutchin defines assessment in this way, "The purpose of the assessment process is to make explicit children's achievements, celebrate their achievements with them, then help them to move forward to the next goal" (1996, p.9). This definition means that assessment should happen alongside children's learning not in opposition to it. This allows the assessment not to be disruptive and keeps them on related tasks to what they are focused on. It also means that the children's progress can be constantly monitored and allows continuous improvements to occur. This is an example of formative assessment. Jan Dubiel also supports that assessment should not be disruptive or irrelevant, she states that ''Assessment has no intrinsic value; it cannot exist meaningfully as a self standing detached entity. The process of assessment is only as useful as the purpose for which it is used, the ways in which it is used, and the effect it has on how practitioners reflect on their pedagogy and the unique learning path that individual children take.' (2014, p.8).