Early Years Key Workers

Early Years Key Workers (EYKW) play a vital role in the development and well-being of young children. At Hampstead Hill School, these professionals work with children from the age of two to five and their families to provide support and guidance during a critical period of growth and development. The following text explores the importance of EYKW, the challenges they face, how assessments are completed, the impact they have on children’s lives and expresses how EYKW operate within Hampstead Hill School.

The early years of a child’s life are crucial for laying the foundation for their future success. During this period, children’s brains are developing rapidly, learning essential skills and behaviours that will shape their lives. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, in a slightly archaic manner,

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”

EYKW are crucial in promoting children’s learning, development, and well-being by providing a safe and nurturing environment, delivering high-quality care and education, and working in partnership with families.

EYKW are responsible for supporting children’s physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. They use their knowledge and expertise to plan and deliver activities that are appropriate for each child’s individual needs and interests. Notably, at Hampstead Hill School this includes the responsible introduction of letters, sounds, numbers and fine motor skills. They also provide support and guidance to families, helping them to understand their child’s development and how they can support their learning at home.

The role of an EYKW is not without its challenges. These professionals must be skilled at working with young children, often in challenging circumstances. They must be able to engage and communicate effectively with children who may not yet have developed their language skills. They must also be able to work with families from a wide range of backgrounds, understanding and respecting their different cultures, values, and beliefs. The responsibilities can be categorised into three core areas:

Meeting the children’s needs

• Aim to match key child to practitioner they make attachment to.
• Key person to have an input into the planning, based on what feel their key child would enjoy/ benefit from to progress further.
• Safeguarding all children.

Keeping records of the key children – including assessment

• All room members (including cover staff) to collect evidence of child’s progress if they observe it, this can be photos, written observations e.g. post it notes or narrative observations, or the child’s work – this is not limited to the one EYKW assigned to a child.
• Keep a record of child’s Learning Journey and update regularly.

Engaging with parents/carers

• Promote a positive relationship between nursery and home, engage in a positive way, create a bond with the parent/ carer.
• Update parent portals with information for parents to access about their child.

During a typical day a practitioner within the classroom engages with all children to support development – this approach increases the children’s social developments and comfortability within what are often new environments. Consequently, practitioners within our classrooms support all children, not just their key children. This common approach has been at the heart of the children’s development at Hampstead Hill School. Additionally, Hampstead Hill School operates a nursery school, which influences are approaches to teaching, learning, early year’s year group and class structure and deployment of EYKW. All contribute and support the children’s social and academic attainment.

Despite the challenges EYKW face, they have a significant impact on children’s lives. Research has shown that high-quality early years education can have a positive impact on children’s long-term outcomes, including academic achievement, social and emotional development, and health and well-being. EYKW are at the forefront of delivering this high-quality education, and their work is essential in ensuring that every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential and love learning.

Assessment is an important aspect of school life, and it is exercised daily at Hampstead Hill School. The Early Years Foundation Stage was updated in 2021 – a notable change instructed a change in approach to the way EYKS completed observational assessments. The aim of changes was to reduce the amount of time that key workers spent observing and recording their assessments, to subsequently increase the amount of time that the EYKW actively engage with the children during play and structured learning to facilitate greater progress. Hampstead Hill School’s early exposure to letters, sounds and numbers, coupled with child-initiated learning facilitated by the EYKW and traditional teaching values enables the desired and above average progress for most children with our non-selective setting. We have adopted the advised changes and the outcomes are rewarding for the children’s progress.

At Hampstead Hill School, progress is formally recorded, monitored and tracked on Tapestry. Our Lower School Assessment policy was reviewed in April 2023, in preparation for the arrival of Kimberley Spencer, our Deputy Head Academic and the appointment of a Head of Early Years, Elaine Makatin. As of May, following staff professional development, our EYKW will be implementing the updates which will result in enhanced, meaningful assessments for parents to view on Tapestry and increased frequency of EYKW Supervision Meetings with Elaine and Kimberley. These changes will increase the support and coaching available to our EYKW and the oversight of the Lower School’s performance. Subsequently, these initiatives will enhance the already high performances of our EYKW and consequently facilitate greater development for our children.

Hampstead Hill School’s Upper School assessment data consistently indicates that children who join Hampstead Hill School in our Early Years and Pre-Reception classes contribute significantly to our extremely high Maths and English standardised GL averages. From the last five years data, our Maths age standardised score is 127 and English is 128, which indicates significant progress within these crucial years for all children’s development. For context, the national average is 100 and the ceiling of the scale is 140. These impressive samples of data root from our curriculum and values and the attention and implementation by our EYKW.

Many of the routine assessments are available for parents to view at their leisure, providing transparency into our children’s development. The tables below feature in Hampstead Hill School’s Home-School Communication Policy and indicate the scheduled opportunities for progress feedback – Written Reports and Parent-Teacher Meetings.

Progress Reporting in Writing

Parent-Teacher Meetings

As expressed within an earlier paragraph, both Tapestry and HomeRun as used to further showcase the children’s learning. The frequency of posts on HomeRun will vary between classes and many factors influence this. We communicate the themes and activities with parents via these secure portals to enable parents to support and engage with the children’s learning at home – the themes are also communicated with parents at the beginning of each term via email. In addition to the many scheduled periods for progress feedback and the two portals, the children’s EYKW are available to communicate progress with parents throughout the year upon request.

To conclude, EYKW play a crucial role in promoting children’s learning, development, and well-being during the critical early years. They work with our children and families to provide support and guidance, delivering high-quality education in a safe and nurturing environment. Communication of progress is shared via the EYKW in a range of formats throughout the academic year and this is core part of their responsibilities that will only enhance as I work with Hampstead Hill School’s new Deputy Head Academic and Head of Early Years. As a community we must continue to support and value the important work of EYKW, recognising the vital role they play in shaping the future of our children, our school and our society.