Baseline Assessment

[juliecalling]

Any ideas on Baseline- examples too would be great! Thank you

[FSFRebecca]

Can you give a more specific idea of what it is you're asking - is it about who to baseline? how to baseline? what to baseline? when to baseline? Whether or not to share with parents? or a more political question regarding the changes that are coming to baseline?

If we know what it is you are after we can help you more effectively :1b

[juliecalling]

Can you give a more specific idea of what it is you're asking - is it about who to baseline? how to baseline? what to baseline? when to baseline? Whether or not to share with parents? or a more political question regarding the changes that are coming to baseline?

If we know what it is you are after we can help you more effectively :1b

Hi Rebecca,

 

Thanks so much for your reply!

 

I just wanted to have a clear idea of how to show my staff in using Baseline. We are a nursery setting and we are currently observing/ assessing our our new little children. We are now coming to the end of October and would like to do a Baseline assessment of where the children are/going/moving forward. We use Tapestry, and do the Baseline on Tapestry.

 

How can my staff effectively make use of the Baseline assessment and make accurate judgments? Any chances of any examples/guidance? They need support with this and they feel there is not enough on Tapestry!

 

Also you might be able to help me with this question. My staff feels that Tapestry's Emerging, Developing, Secure statements needs adjusting.

 

They feel that there should be an extra section where they can highlight where a child is. So for example: A child may work within the 22- 36 months bracket, but is they also meet some 30-50 month criteria, but is not yet ready for the 30-50 Emerging?

 

Now: Would you just keep that child in the 22-36 month bracket until that child is secure and then move that child into the 30-50 month bracket?. I hope this makes sense to you.

 

My understanding was that you would as a practitioner make that judgement as to whether that child is completely secure in that developmental bracket and then move that child into the next bracket - i.e. secure in 22-36 and now ready for 30-50- emerging. Is this correct?

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

Looking forward to hear back from you.

 

J

[FSFRebecca]

Hi J,

I'll answer your questions in turn if I may, I've turned your questions to italics so that it's clear for everyone to see what was asked, and what the answer was!

How can my staff effectively make use of the Baseline assessment and make accurate judgements? Any chances of any examples/guidance? They need support with this and they feel there is not enough on Tapestry!

Most settings have a short baseline period (up to a month) whilst the children are settling and everyone is getting to know one another. On the baseline snapshot you can set this time period to be whatever you want it to be. During the baseline period that you have set any assessments will be put into the baseline snapshot. At the end of the baseline period you can see what data you have collected and add in any that you might have missed (things that your professional knowledge tells you that you know about a child, but you don't actually have an observation). So you have a complete baseline. For the youngest children you might only baseline in the Prime areas, it's entirely up to you how you do it.

In terms of making accurate judgements you use you professional knowledge first and foremost and then use the Development Matters / Early Years outcome statements to find a best fit for the age and stage of each child. I have written an article about how to make assessments of observations using Tapestry, you might find it helpful: Observing and assessing extended tutorial for Tapestry users

Also you might be able to help me with this question. My staff feels that Tapestry's Emerging, Developing, Secure statements needs adjusting. They feel that there should be an extra section where they can highlight where a child is. So for example: A child may work within the 22- 36 months bracket, but is they also meet some 30-50 month criteria, but is not yet ready for the 30-50 Emerging? Now: Would you just keep that child in the 22-36 month bracket until that child is secure and then move that child into the 30-50 month bracket?. My understanding was that you would as a practitioner make that judgement as to whether that child is completely secure in that developmental bracket and then move that child into the next bracket - i.e. secure in 22-36 and now ready for 30-50- emerging.

As I am sure you know, when the Development Matters document was released it was not meant to be used as a tick list, it was designed to give staff a 'feel' of the kinds of things they might see at different ages and stages. Nancy Stewart, one of the original authors, wrote this piece for us explaining the philosophy behind it: Development Matters: A landscape of possibilities, not a roadmap. You will see from this how we, at Tapestry, view the questions about being completely secure in one age band before moving onto the next one. We would say that your staff should consider what they are observing and think about whether the child is developing in an age appropriate way (i.e. are they worried about the child? is the child particularly talented?). If they are happy that they child is developing as expected, then are they a 'best fit' for the descriptors in the younger age band or are they 'best fit' for the descriptors in the older age band (my article attached above, about Aimee, explains how to do this in detail). I would then be using my professional judgement to select the appropriate age band. If I was unsure about whether to put emerging, developing or secure I would be collecting more information by observing more to add to my knowledge to enable me to make a better assessment. I wouldn't be saying that I was moving a child into the next age bracket, nor would I be saying are they 'ready' for the next age band ... The child is where they are at now: they are the age they are, and they can do what they can do now - assess what you can see, not what you think they might do next.

I hope that helps