Are you looking for an alternative to EExAT for your Early Years progress tracking? With EExAT closing, we know schools will be searching for a new EYFS progress tracker they can get up and running quickly. Our EYFS tracking system Connecting Steps is the best alternative to EExAT to show progress for ALL your Early Years pupils (children working at ARE and those with SEND). It’s easy to switch from EExAT to Connecting Steps. We’ll support you all the way with FREE online training and our Support Team are just a phone call away. Click here to book a FREE online meeting to find out how quickly and easily your school can switch from EExAT
Want to show progress for ALL of your children in Early Years Foundation Stage in line with the new EYFS 2021?
Would you like to simplify your Early Years assessment, reduce teacher workload and save money?
Well you can achieve all this when you use Connecting Steps as your EYFS progress tracker and Evisense as your digital learning journal. This powerful combination now enables Schools and Early Years settings to demonstrate progress for ALL of your EYFS pupils. It’s a fully inclusive solution, suitable for children working at Age Related Expectations and those with Special Educational Needs.
Simplify assessment, reduce teacher workload and save money using Connecting Steps and Evisense to demonstrate progress for ALL of your Early Years pupils.
Our latest Early Years assessment frameworks are based on EYFS 2021 and Development Matters 2020.
Early Steps 2021 splits ‘birth to 3’ into 8 levels, to help your setting show progress for children with SEND and profile their needs.
Our new Development Matters framework for pupils working at ARE means you can now assess ALL EYFS pupils with Connecting Steps.
Quickly and easily link photo and video evidence of learning to children’s assessments using Evisense.
Early Years assessment challenges – all change for EYFS 2021 – EExAT replacement EYFS tracker
The new Early Years Foundation Stage 2021 has been statutory for schools and early years providers in England since September. Our Early Steps 2021 framework covers both EYFS 2021 and the new Development Matters.
Assessment in Early Years is based on observation. Our Connecting Steps software is great for recording the achievements of babies and children from birth to the Exceeded Early Learning Goals across all 7 areas. We have broken down each of the stages into smaller steps. This assists with the observation process and makes it possible to demonstrate even the smallest amounts of progress. So it’s easier to record what each child has achieved and identify their next steps. Read more about our Early Years assessment solutions
Struggling to show small steps of progress?
Early years settings told us they find the levels in the new Development Matters very broad – particularly for 0-3 years. This makes it hard to demonstrate the small steps of progress made by children who are working below the level of a 3 year old. So we took the decision to split ‘birth to 3’ into 8 levels. This enables settings that have children with SEND to show their progress and profile their needs.
“We’ve used Early Steps 2021 to help us identify where the different milestones within the revised Development Matters fall within the 0-3 years stage. Consequently, we have integrated the key steps from B Squared and those which feature in Development Matters, into our curriculum. We have now updated our curriculum ages and stages to reflect the B Squared levels. Having them broken down further also means we can illustrate progress for our pupils who are working at the lowest levels. I’m glad it came out early as we now feel prepared for September!”
Alexis Gardner, Assistant Headteacher, KTS Academy
BOOK A FREE ONLINE MEETING TO FIND OUT HOW QUICKLY AND EASILY YOUR SCHOOL CAN SWITCH FROM EExAT
Assessment for ALL pupils in Early Years – a great alternative to EExAT!
You may be familiar with our assessment frameworks for children with SEND. But did you know you can now use Connecting Steps to assess pupils working at Age Related Expectations too? It’s a great alternative to EExAT!
We’ve created 2 new assessment frameworks – Development Matters (for Early Years) and Primary Curriculum (for KS1&2). They are based on Government guidance but include far less detail than our SEND frameworks. So they are ideal for showing the progress of pupils working at ARE.
Simplify assessment, reduce teacher workload and save money
You can now use Connecting Steps to assess ALL of your EYFS pupils with our frameworks for Early Years:
- Early Steps – for children with SEND working within EYFS 2021.
- Development Matters – for typically developing children working within EYFS 2021. *FREE content for Connecting Steps users*
We also have assessment frameworks for KS1&2 to track the progress of pupils working at ARE and those with SEND. So you can continue to use Connecting Steps to assess as pupils move through Primary School.
Why move to one assessment system?
Many Early Years settings currently use Connecting Steps to assess pupils with SEND and then another ‘mainstream’ assessment system for pupils working at ARE, such as Tapestry or EExAT.
Great news! Early Years settings can now use Connecting Steps to assess ALL pupils. This means staff will have only 1 system to master, 1 system to manage, 1 system for producing data (no more cutting and pasting or merging data) and just 1 system to pay for!
Watch Dale’s video on the benefits of moving to one assessment system.
book a free online meeting to find out how to show progress for all pupils with our inclusive EYFS tracker
Manage your EYFS assessments and evidence of learning in one easy to use system
Are you spending hours cutting and sticking in a learning journal to give a full picture of a child’s achievements? Our assessment and evidence management for Early Years has been designed to help you show the progress made by ALL children in your setting.
Demonstrate achievements by quickly and easily linking digital photo and video evidence captured in Evisense (our online learning journal) to children’s assessments in Connecting Steps.
Watch the video to see Evisense in action.
Book a FREE online meeting to find out more about Evisense
