Learning Journeys

Please bear in mind the most recent government guidance on reducing paperwork, however, should you choose to use learning journeys you may be able to get some ideas from here.

Background - ‘What is a Learning Journey?’

The term ‘learning journey’ has been used to mean different things in different contexts, but is often seen as a holistic way of recording how a young child learns and develops as they move through the Early Years Foundation Stage.

More recent references to a learning journey acknowledge it as a document in which practitioners collect evidence of a child’s learning and development as they make progress towards the ELG’s at the end of the reception year.

EYFS Statutory Assessment Requirements

States that observational assessment is the most reliable way of building up an accurate picture of children’s development and learning, and that there is no prescribed method of gathering evidence, nor any expectation that it should be recorded in a specified way.

Accurate assessment will depend on contributions from a range of perspectives including the child’s. Practitioners should involve children fully in their own assessment by encouraging them to communicate, and review, their own learning. The assessment should build on the insights of all adults who have significant interactions with the child.

Tracking Progress Project Overview - Using this Guidance Document

This guidance document has been developed as a result of a Lancashire tracking progress project for schools. The aim of the project was to identify ways in which a group of schools developed and used ‘learning journeys’ effectively as an evidence base to support tracking progress through the EYFS.

This guidance document highlights key factors which are important when developing effective learning journeys, and identifies some considerations for practitioners and senior leaders/management to reflect on if learning journeys are to be used as part of the school/settings assessment system.

The document includes case studies from the schools involved in the project, which illustrate how each school has successfully developed and managed learning journeys.