The recent DfE initiative, announced in October 2024, and subsequently incorporated in the ‘Best Start in Life’ Strategy, set an aspirational target of 75% of children attaining a Good Level of Development (GLD) by the end of YR. Assessed by educator observations and reliant upon professional judgement through the EYFS Profile, the GLD, introduced in 2013, indicates children have reached an ‘expected’ level in The Prime Areas of Learning and Development in addition to the Specific Areas of Literacy and Mathematics. In the most recent data from 2023-2024 the national figure was that 67.7% of all children reached a GLD.

This announcement provoked criticism of the status of the GLD and its inappropriateness as both a data content measure and as assessment for children in YR.The criticisms are by no means new or unexpected. Much of the current critique follows in a similar vein to that of the introduction of the Foundation Stage Profile (FSP), and while there are no suggestions of what the GLD could be replaced with, there remains an antithesis to the existence of the assessment itself, the measure it identifies and the data that is produced.

As is often the case, the criticisms are more illuminating in identifying a lack of understanding than a coherent analysis of the GLD itself. We choose the lens with which we view the subject matter, and, in this context, it is limited by the knowledge of what the FSP was, and the EYFSP and GLD currently are.

Central to this, and a major part of the criticism, is the essential distinction between ‘attainment’ and ‘achievement’. While there is clearly overlap between the two, they are essentially different perceptions and interpretations of the same information.

• Attainment - is the completion or demonstration of knowledge, skill or understanding that lies within a specific, and specifically pitched criteria.
• Achievement –indicates progress made from an individual starting point, the journey travelled that may or may not attain a specific criterion.

The significant point here is that the EYFS Profile and the GLD that derives from it are an ‘attainment’ measure not a description of ‘achievement’ (nor for that matter, failure). While educators across the phase and including YR are continually pitching their interactions and approaches to teaching in order to ‘nudge forward’ achievement, this is totally separate from the measure and the data that the GLD provides. In a technical sense the criticism of the GLD is accurate – it does not measure achievement. A child can have made progress – significant achievement - from an early stage of development on entry and still not attain the GLD. Conversely, it is quite possible that a child may have entered YR having already attained a GLD and subsequently made no progress at all.

But the GLD was never intended to be an achievement measure nor demonstrate the progress a child has made – how could it without an official measure of attainment on entry? It is intentionally ‘blind’ to the context and starting point for the child and in a very real sense that is the purpose. A GLD is a small part of the whole, and every educator who works in YR knows that there is an intricate and voluminous supplement to the mere data figure that the GLD and ELG attainment provides. Far from the notion of ‘failing’ - which is in itself a ridiculous and absurd consideration - the rationale behind the GLD, regardless of how it describes the national picture, is quite clear. The attainment of a GLD is a proxy for what we might suggest as a broad level of knowledge and skills with which to enter Y1 and engage with the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for KS1 – what could be described more broadly under the even more controversial term of ‘school readiness’. Children who have attained this, it is suggested, are ready for what the next phase of learning will demand. The converse is also true and is a fundamental support for equity and appropriate provision, expectation and progress. A child who has not attained a GLD needs a specific, individualised trajectory to move through this phase of attainment and ultimately into the expectations of the National Curriculum with their peers.

However, given that attaining the GLD is now a specific target it is worth exploring exactly what it assesses and consists of. Although it is an attainment measure not a description of achievement the content of a ‘good level of development’ focusses on key knowledge and skills that are part of our overall - rather than just prescribed – aspirations for children by the end of YR.

The GLD asks that children can listen and ask questions, comment on what hey have heard and are able to engage in back-and-forth conversations. It requires them to talk with adults and peers in different contexts expressing their ideas and feelings and able to articulate this so that it is understood, developing their knowledge of language and expanding their personal vocabulary. Recently, the GLD now includes the ability to self regulate, name and understand their emotions – and those of others – and develop strategies to manage them effectively. It asks them to be able to have a goal, work independently, persistently and flexibility and manage distraction to focus on a task in hand. It requires the need to be enculturated, understanding rues and the reasons for them, manage their own personal hygiene and understand the importance of a good diet. The GLD needs children to be able to build relationships, working co-operatively and collaborating. It also identifies the important of physical development, gross and fine motor and the ability to control their movements and use apparatus and utensils. Equally – and perhaps most controversially – children need to be able to engage with stories, using vocabulary and understanding key elements of character and plot. The GLD requires a child to be able to be confident in their knowledge of phoneme/grapheme correspondence and be able to blend and segment to enable their reading/decoding and writing/transcriptional skills. In mathematics, the GLD asks children to have a confident understanding of number being able to count clearly and understand the relationship between numbers and the implicit patterns that exist within it.

The rationale behind establishing a target around this is clear. Attainment of a GLD is, as a proxy, strongly connected to later outcomes, especially academic ones regarding attainment of GCSEs – particularly for children in receipt of FSM. Ensuring that children have the opportunity for academic success, ‘readiness’ for the next stage of education and the foundations for successful learning in place can be, at least in part, aligned to attainment of a GLD.

Having a national measure of outcomes in the EYFS is a useful starting point for looking at progress, attainment and the potential trajectories of learning and development. It also feeds into considerations regarding the effectiveness of YR provision. However, this does not preclude the more important aspect of ensuring that children’s achievement, the process of learning is understood and facilitated.