Persist for extended periods of time at an activity of their choosing.
Continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.
Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group.
Maintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when appropriate.
Self-confidence and Self-esteem
Express needs and feelings in appropriate ways.
Have an awareness and pride in self as having own identity and abilities.
Respond to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate.
Have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings, and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others.
Have a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people.
Is confident in seeking comfort, reassurance and help from special people.
Approaches adults with a degree of social skill.
Can express wishes and needs clearly and understands when not immediately met.
Is able to negotiate, argue point of view and accept others' perspectives.
Shows compliance with social expectations.
Often actively seeks sharing and fairness.
Has strong sense of fun and humour; is able to engage others in pleasurable interaction.
Positively values playing with other children and joins in shared play.
Approaches new challenges with assurance in own ability.
Is aware of own strengths and weaknesses.
Can describe self in positive terms and talk about abilities.
Welcomes and values praise for achievements.
Enjoys talking about past experiences, the present and future plans.
Identifies with own immediate family, relations and family friends.
Enjoys taking part in family routines and chores.
Takes pride in own appearance.
Practices good self-care, often without prompting.
Making Relationships
Value and contribute to own well-being and self-control.
Form good relationships with adults and peers.
Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.
Understands that own actions affect other people, for example, becomes upset or tries to comfort another child when they realise they have upset them.
Monitors other children's behaviour with a sense of right and wrong.
Generally more cooperative and amenable to rules and routines, has fewer tantrums.
Knows cannot always have what they want when they want it.
Is conscious of and curious about sex differences.
Gets satisfaction from doing things with other children and adults.
Joins in imaginative play, for example, in the home corner.
More confident in new social situations, for example, playgroup, but may be anxious at first.
Behaviour and Self-control
Show confidence and the ability to stand up for own rights.
Have an awareness of the boundaries set, and of behavioural expectations in the setting.
Understand what is right, what is wrong, and why.
Consider the consequences of their words and actions for themselves and others.
Self-care
Operate independently within the environment and show confidence in linking up with others for support and guidance.
Appreciate the need for hygiene.
Dress and undress independently and manage their own personal hygiene.
Select and use activities and resources independently.
Sense of Community
Have an awareness of, and an interest in, cultural and religious differences.
Have a positive self-image, and show that they are comfortable with themselves.
Enjoy joining in with family customs and routines.
Understand that people have different needs, views, cultures and beliefs, that need to be treated with respect.
Understand that they can expect others to treat their needs, views, cultures and beliefs with respect.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Development matters
Language for Communication
Have confidence to speak to others about their own wants and interests.
Use talk to gain attention and sometimes use action rather than talk to demonstrate or explain to others.
Initiate conversation, attend to and take account of what others say.
Extend vocabulary, especially by grouping and naming.
Use vocabulary and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experience of books.
Link statements and stick to a main theme or intention.
Consistently develop a simple story, explanation or line of questioning.
Use language for an increasing range of purposes.
Use simple grammatical structures.
Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation.
Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily turn to it in their play and learning.
Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.
Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems.
Extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words.
Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and show awareness of the listener.
Language for Thinking
Begin to use talk instead of action to rehearse, reorder and reflect on past experience, linking significant events from own experience and from stories, paying attention to how events lead into one another.
Begin to make patterns in their experience through linking cause and effect, sequencing, ordering and grouping.
Begin to use talk to pretend imaginary situations.
Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences.
Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events.
Linking Sounds and Letters
Continue a rhyming string.
Hear and say the initial sound in words and know which letters represent some of the sounds.
Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they occur.
Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words.
Can write a few letters when named and make a good attempt at writing own name.
Can recognise several letters.
Makes attempts at reading familiar words in picture books.
Produces more than half of the consonant sounds accurately.
Produces some consonant blends (for example, 'tr' in tree, 'bl' in blue).
Produces almost all vowel sounds accurately.
Starting to mark two and three syllables in words.
Reading
Enjoy an increasing range of books.
Know that information can be retrieved from books and computers.
Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts.
Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories.
Read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently.
Know that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom.
Show an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main character, sequence of events and openings, and how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how.
Writing
Begin to break the flow of speech into words.
Use writing as a means of recording and communicating.
Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words.
Attempt writing for different purposes, using features of different forms such as lists, stories and instructions.
Write their own names and other things such as labels and captions, and begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation.
Handwriting
Begin to use anticlockwise movement and retrace vertical lines.
Begin to form recognisable letters.
Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Development matters
Numbers as Labels and for Counting
Recognise some numerals of personal significance.
Count up to three or four objects by saying one number name for each item.
Count out up to six objects from a larger group.
Count actions or objects that cannot be moved.
Begin to count beyond 10.
Begin to represent numbers using fingers, marks on paper or pictures.
Select the correct numeral to represent 1 to 5, then 1 to 9 objects.
Recognise numerals 1 to 5.
Count an irregular arrangement of up to ten objects.
Estimate how many objects they can see and check by counting them.
Count aloud in ones, twos, fives or tens.
Know that numbers identify how many objects are in a set.
Use ordinal numbers in different contexts.
Match then compare the number of objects in two sets.
Say and use number names in order in familiar contexts.
Count reliably up to ten everyday objects.
Recognise numerals 1 to 9.
Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems.
Calculating
Find the total number of items in two groups by counting all of them.
Use own methods to work through a problem.
Say the number that is one more than a given number.
Select two groups of objects to make a given total of objects.
Count repeated groups of the same size.
Share objects into equal groups and count how many in each group.
In practical activities and discussion, begin to use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting.
Use language such as 'more' or 'less' to compare two numbers.
Find one more or one less than a number from one to ten.
Begin to relate addition to combining two groups of objects and subtraction to 'taking away'.
Shape, Space and Measures
Show curiosity about and observation of shapes by talking about how they are the same or different.
Match some shapes by recognising similarities and orientation.
Begin to use mathematical names for 'solid' 3D shapes and 'flat' 2D shapes, and mathematical terms to describe shapes.
Select a particular named shape.
Show awareness of symmetry.
Find items from positional or directional clues.
Order two or three items by length or height.
Order two items by weight or capacity.
Match sets of objects to numerals that represent the number of objects.
Sort familiar objects to identify their similarities and differences, making choices and justifying decisions.
Describe solutions to practical problems, drawing on experience, talking about own ideas, methods and choices.
Use familiar objects and common shapes to create and recreate patterns and build models.
Use everyday language related to time; order and sequence familiar events, and measure short periods of time with a non-standard unit, for example, with a sand timer.
Count how many objects share a particular property, presenting results using pictures, drawings or numerals.
Use language such as 'greater', 'smaller', 'heavier' or 'lighter' to compare quantities.
Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns.
Use language such as 'circle' or 'bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes.
Use everyday words to describe position.
Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Development matters
Exploration and Investigation
Notice and comment on patterns.
Show an awareness of change.
Explain own knowledge and understanding, and ask appropriate questions of others.
Investigate objects and materials by using all of their senses as appropriate.
Find out about, and identify, some features of living things, objects and events they observe.
Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.
Ask questions about why things happen and how things work.
Shows interest in the natural world.
Asks "Why?" frequently and considers replies.
Designing and Making
Construct with a purpose in mind, using a variety of resources.
Use simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately.
Build and construct with a wide range of objects, selecting appropriate resources and adapting their work where necessary.
Select the tools and techniques they need to shape, assemble and join materials they are using.
ICT
Complete a simple program on a computer.
Use ICT to perform simple functions, such as selecting a channel on the TV remote control.
Use a mouse and keyboard to interact with age-appropriate computer software.
Find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology and use information and communication technology and programmable toys to support their learning.
Finding a website - In a nursery class, the practitioner supports a child using the computer to find a particular website. [transcript]
You can watch the video, via modem or slow / fast / superfast broadband connections. If you are behind a network firewall, why not click here to view a flash file of the video. You do need to have the flash plugin.
Time
Begin to differentiate between past and present.
Use time-related words in conversation.
Understand about the seasons of the year and their regularity.
Make short-term future plans.
Find out about past and present events in their own lives, and in those of their families and other people they know.
Place
Notice differences between features of the local environment.
Observe, find out about and identify features in the place they live and the natural world.
Find out about their environment, and talk about those features they like and dislike.
Communities
Gain an awareness of the cultures and beliefs of others.
Feel a sense of belonging to own community and place.
Begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people.
Physical Development
Development matters
Movement and Space
Go backwards and sideways as well as forwards.
Experiment with different ways of moving.
Initiate new combinations of movement and gesture in order to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences.
Jump off an object and land appropriately.
Show understanding of the need for safety when tackling new challenges.
Avoid dangerous places and equipment.
Construct with large materials such as cartons, fabric and planks.
Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.
Move with control and coordination.
Travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment.
Show awareness of space, of themselves and of others.
Health and Bodily Awareness
Show some understanding that good practices with regard to exercise, eating, sleeping and hygiene can contribute to good health.
Recognise the importance of keeping healthy, and those things which contribute to this.
Recognise the changes that happen to their bodies when they are active.
Feeding:
Helps with food preparation.
Has food preferences and wishes and expresses them.
Understands need for variety in food.
Eats a healthy range of foodstuffs.
Understands need for hygiene in food preparation, serving and eating.
Washing:
Begins to take responsibility for self-care in washing, teeth cleaning.
Uses personal hygiene materials competently.
Knows when to wash hands and face.
Shows negative reactions to lack of cleanliness in food, personal items and so on.
Toileting:
Reliably dry and clean during the day.
Usually initiates use of toilet when needed, and seeks help as required.
Knows routine of wiping self and handwashing and usually carries this out.
Note:
Early Support material relating to dressing appears in Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Self-care
Using Equipment and Materials
Explore malleable materials by patting, stroking, poking, squeezing, pinching and twisting them.
Use increasing control over an object, such as a ball, by touching, pushing, patting, throwing, catching or kicking it.
Manipulate materials to achieve a planned effect.
Use simple tools to effect changes to the materials.
Show understanding of how to transport and store equipment safely.
Practise some appropriate safety measures without direct supervision.
Use a range of small and large equipment.
Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.
Creative Development
Development matters
Being Creative - Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas
Talk about personal intentions, describing what they were trying to do.
Respond to comments and questions, entering into dialogue about their creations.
Make comparisons and create new connections.
Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.
Exploring Media and Materials
Explore what happens when they mix colours.
Choose particular colours to use for a purpose.
Understand that different media can be combined to create new effects.
Experiment to create different textures.
Create constructions, collages, painting and drawings.
Use ideas involving fitting, overlapping, in, out, enclosure, grids and sun-like shapes.
Work creatively on a large or small scale.
Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions.
Creating Music and Dance
Begin to build a repertoire of songs and dances.
Explore the different sounds of instruments.
Begin to move rhythmically.
Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movements to music.
Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
Introduce a storyline or narrative into their play.
Play alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme.
Play cooperatively as part of a group to act out a narrative.
Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, imaginative and role-play and stories.
