Making sense of foundation profiles

By Katherine Sellgren
BBC News Online Education staff

Families at Dallow Primary speak many languages

Head teachers have raised concerns about the complexity of the language they have to use to assess infant pupils - and the extra burden placed on staff.

"Uses phonetic knowledge to write simple, regular words and makes phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words."

This is one of the 117 individual judgements that reception teachers must make on each child in their class. Each judgement is ticked as appropriate.

Teachers are also required to note down, throughout the foundation stage profile booklets, various comments about the pupil concerned.

Parents of reception-age pupils (four to five year olds) are encouraged to take part in the evaluation process and to discuss with teachers the progress they see in their own child.

Teachers are having to put comments in to translate it into understandable English David Tuck, head teacher

But David Tuck, head teacher at Dallow Primary School in Luton, Bedfordshire, fears the technical and complex language of the profile booklets makes many parents feel ostracised from the education system.

"In order to make this profile meaningful to parents, teachers are having to put comments in to translate it into understandable English," says Mr Tuck.

"Now if you're trying to involve parents in their children's education - and we are - you've got to start by using the same vocabulary.

"I have particular concerns because for a large proportion of our intake, English is not their first language."

Misunderstandings

Mr Tuck says the document talks about a child's "previous setting" which some parents take to refer to streaming on the basis of ability, rather than a context such as nursery school.

"One of the sections is called 'dispositions and attitudes', so we're having to explain what dispositions are. It's really an esoteric language," says Mr Tuck.

David Pratt says the system is bureaucratic

David Pratt, head teacher of Little Common Primary School in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, welcomes the focus on parental involvement, but has concerns about the extra burden this places on staff.

"It is well intentioned from the point of view of parents' telling teachers what they think their children can do. It does open a possibility of dialogue and we must celebrate that," says Mr Pratt.

"But it's not the something you can do in a five-minute interview - it takes a considerable time, al least 20 to 30 minutes for each child.

"Now that's a big increase in teachers' workload."

Mr Pratt also highlights the increased amount of paper work for teachers of reception classes.

"It's a huge amount of work for the teachers - there are nine areas they have to cover with 13 questions in each. So there are 117 items on the check list. It's quite bureaucratic."

'Steam-age' practices

The East Sussex head teacher also wants to see the profile system brought into the 21st century.

"The booklet is not on screen so it's not just a case of updating a pupil's record as required on the computer.

"As things stand there's no means of copying this document and parents get to keep it at the end of the year, so we're having to write separate reports for our records."

Mr Tuck from Luton also raises concerns about the increased pressure on staff, saying his teachers spend "hours and hours" filling out the profile booklets.