Designing Your Assessments
You can choose what information to include in your assessments and two-year checks. To set this up:
Go to Settings, then Child Development and Assessment settings
From here you can either configure your own assessment or choose from a pre-made assessment template as your default.
Assessing Using Development Matters Guidance
This is recommended if you've chosen to use the Development Matters guidance. This assessment was designed in conjunction with the authors of Development Matters and consists of:
Assessment options: Progressing well, Give more support, and Needs special support
Space for reflections (free text boxes)
No age banding
Assessing Using Birth to Five Matters Guidance
This is recommended if you've chosen to use the Birth to Five Matters guidance. This assessment is approved by the authors of Birth to Five Matters and consists of:
Ranges 1 to 6, as in the Birth to Five Matters guidance
One assessment option: Needs some focus
Space for reflections (free text boxes)
Custom Assessment Options
This gives you the option to create your own assessment configuration for your setting. Under Create your own configuration, a new menu will open where you can choose:
What to call your assessment
Which framework to assess within
Whether to include age bands, what those bands are, and how many you'd like
Whether to include specific assessment options, how many, what to call them, and which colours represent them
Whether to include reflections (a free text box)
💡 If you choose not to add any assessment options or age bands, your progress report will be blank
When creating your own assessment configurations, keep in mind:
What information you really need and what you can leave out. The EYFS states that assessing should not take practitioners away from children for too long, so assessments shouldn't be too complex
Whether the information tells you what the child can do
Whether the information tells you where a child might need extra support
Whether the language you use to define where a child may need additional support is clear to practitioners and sensitive to the child and their parents
💡 Assessment configurations cannot be deleted after an assessment has been made using them. They can be left as disabled so they won't show up for staff when creating an assessment
Making an Assessment
Assessment is ongoing through your observations of the children in your care, but you can also record summative assessments to create a snapshot of a child's current development.
To make an assessment:
Go to the child's profile and select the Journey tab
Click New and select Assessment from the dropdown
Fill in your assessment template. Your reference material will appear on the right
Optionally, add a photo by clicking Add photos
Click Send or Save as draft
💡 To see the reference material in the app, you'll need to be on a tablet device (iPad or similar) in landscape mode. You will not have the option to select specific curriculum statements
The Two-Year Progress Check
You can complete the two-year progress check in Famly. This can only be done once per child.
To complete a two-year check:
Go to the child's profile and select the Journey tab
Click New and select Two year check from the dropdown
Fill in the text fields. Drafts are saved automatically if you're called away
Two-year checks are structurally similar to assessments, but unlike assessments they are not included in the progress report. Once created, the check will appear as a fixed entry in the child's learning journey and can also be found in the Overview of the Child Development tab.
💡 If a two-year check has been sent for review, another cannot be started until it has been completed
Finding Previous Assessments
All assessments and observations made about a child can be found in chronological order on the Journey tab of their profile.
Making an Observation
🔒 To make observations, you'll need the Manage observations permission enabled. If this is the only observation permission a staff member has, their observations will be sent to a manager for review before being sent
To make an observation:
Go to the child's profile and select the Journey tab
Click New and select Observation from the dropdown, or go to the Newsfeed and click the Observation tab
The boxes above the text allow you to choose the framework you're working in. The Reference material panel on the left is where you'll find curriculum guidance to support your knowledge of the child's development. When you enter the child's name, relevant bands or stages are suggested as a starting point.
💡 To see the reference material in the app, you'll need to be on a tablet device (iPad or similar) in landscape mode
You can view a child's past observations and assessments for reference by clicking Past observations and assessments, and add next steps by clicking What's next?
💡 Draft observations are deleted 90 days after they were last edited
Draft Observations
If you click Save as draft instead of Send, you can return to the observation to finish it later. To find a draft observation:
Open the Child Development app
From the Status dropdown, select Draft
All of your draft observations will appear in a list. Click the three dots to the right of an observation to edit or delete it.
Approving Observations
When approving observations made by practitioners, you may want to offer feedback before sending them to the child's journey. To do this:
Open the Child Development app and go to the Overview page
Open the Status dropdown on the left and select Pending review to see a list of observations awaiting review
Click on an observation to open it
Add a comment in the box on the left-hand side and click the paper plane icon to send it
Click Request changes to send the observation back to the original author