These annual statistics report on teacher assessments of children’s development at the end of the early years foundation stage (EYFS), specifically the end of the academic year in which a child turns 5. This is typically the summer term of reception year. The assessment framework, or EYFS Profile, consists of 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across 7 areas of learning.
This is the third publication since the 2021/22 EYFS reforms (opens in a new tab) were introduced in September 2021. As part of those reforms, the EYFS Profile was significantly revised. It is therefore not possible to directly compare assessment outcomes since 2021/22 with earlier years.
In 2024, just over 2 in every 3 children had a good level of development and just under 2 in every 3 children were at the expected level across all 17 early learning goals (ELGs).
These percentages increased by around half a percentage point in 2023/24 (compared with a year earlier), which is smaller than the rise of around 2 percentage points seen in 2022/23.
The increases seen in 2022/23 and 2023/24 may be attributable to:
- gradual recovery from disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A similar trend is seen in the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check (in year 1) where a rise in 2022/23 (up 3 percentage points) was followed by a smaller rise in 2023/24 (up 1 percentage point).
- practitioners having greater familiarisation with the new assessment framework introduced in September 2021. Whilst the data is not directly comparable, there were also rises in these percentages in 2013/14 (up by around 9 percentage points), followed by smaller rises in 2014/15 (up by around 6 percentage points) after the EYFS Profile was previously revised at the start of the 2012/13 academic year.
In 2023/24, each child, on average, had reached the expected level in 14.1 early learning goals, unchanged from 2022/23 and 2021/22.