Cohort Tracking

What is Cohort Tracking?

Cohort Trackers are simply the tracking tools used by all early years professional to track each child’s development in all seven areas of the EYFS which are;

• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

By completing Cohort Tracking, practitioners can decide whether a child is emerging, developing or secure for each different area therefore can give a good indication of which stage of development they are at.

A cohort tracker is critical for highlighting individuals needs and to ensure that the weekly planning is well informed fully of relevant activities that are challenging yet achievable. Ofsted often wants to see how each child is being supported and how individual needs are met. By directing them to the completed cohort tracker is the perfect way to evidence how you have identified children’s individual needs.

Many settings choose to add a next steps box on the end of their cohort trackers to show what steps will be put in place to promote development and learning. Settings may also choose to add a parent/carer comment box to allow for parents to detail any developmental concerns they have or anything which the child is displaying at home but hasn’t yet been observed in the setting. This gives a clearer picture of the child’s overall development and means practitioners can look out for specific behaviours in the environment that are seen at home.

Tops Autumn Term Cohort Tracking

In our Autumn term Cohort report we have shown data split into under 3’s and over 3’s to give a clear idea of how we are impacting children in the different age groups.

This data shows under 3’s and over 3’s:

• Communication and Language
• Personal social and emotional
• Physical development

This data shows over 3’s:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Expressing arts and design
• Understanding the world

Personal Social and Emotional

This area helps to shape children’s social skills and develops respect and an understanding of their different feelings.

This data shows that we are exceeding spring and Summer term results progressing well in all areas compared to last term. Under 3’s are also exceeding in all areas.

Communication and Language

Providing an environment for young children to express themselves and speak and listen in a range of situations allows them to develop their language and communication skills.

This data shows an increase from Spring (Jan-Mar) to now. Overall, we have made good progress this term in developing the children’s communication and language development.

Physical Development

Physical Development is helping children to understand the importance of physical exercise as well as why food choices are important.

This data shows improvement in moving and handling and health and self care in both age groups and made significant improvement from last term.

Literacy

It’s important for children to discover phonemic awareness – the ability to hear and identify different words and sounds, and also to start reading and writing.

This data shows that both reading and writing development at Tops is exceeding the national average of Good Level of Development (GLD).

Mathematics

Children need to be guided in developing skills with numbers and calculations, as well as being able to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.

Our Autumn term data shows steady progress in Mathematics and improvements have been made from the Summer term.

Expressive Arts and Design

Expressive arts and design include activities like drawing, playing with paint, instruments and technology. These activities all give children the chance to express themselves and learn new things.

This data shows significant improvements in the Autumn term, our settings have focused on this area and worked hard to develop the children’s development in expressive art and design.

Understanding the World

Understanding the world involves children making sense of things by observing and exploring everything from the places they spend time to the technology and other things that they use.

This data shows a steady improvement from last terms data however we’re still behind the GLD of development for this area.

Next Steps

From our Cohort Tracking we are able to see what areas we need to focus on and all of our nurseries are working hard to improve them. This is what Tops Corfe Mullen have done to address the areas in need of improvement.