EYFS Deep Dive and Evaluation Audit Bundle

Please note: This pack has been designed for EYFS leaders in primary schools who have Reception classes. It can also support you in assessing your provision for your attached nursery / preschool (i.e. 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds who are on your school's roll), if you have one. It follows the structure of Ofsted's Education Inspection Framework (EIF) and how maintained schools and academies are inspected as per the Schools Inspection Handbook. It does not follow the Early Years Inspection Handbook, which is for registered early years and childcare providers, therefore it's less suitable for those working in private nurseries / preschools, childminders or other EYFS settings that are not part of a primary school.

This bundle pack contains guidance of what an Ofsted deep dive entails and how you can utilise a similar internal process in your own EYFS monitoring. While Ofsted do not carry out deep dives specifically into the EYFS like they would do for a curriculum subject, they do explore how effective the EYFS is as part of subject deep dives and as part of the school's overall quality of education, leadership and management, behaviour and attitudes and personal development. This pack is designed for EYFS leaders to explore all of these aspects and contains the following:

1. Deep Dive Audits - there are five separate deep dive audits, all tailored to the early years foundation stage, that allow you to explore your school's EYFS provision in relation to the EIF. These cover:

• Quality of Education and Leadership and Management - a combined audit of two EIF areas, and your likely starting point when investigating your EYFS provision.
• Behaviour and Attitudes 
• Personal Development
• Safeguarding
• SEND

2. Area for Learning Deep Dives - there are seven documents, one for each area of learning in the EYFS: communication and language, expressive arts and design, literacy, mathematics, personal social and emotional development, physical development and understanding the world. These allow you to explore whichever areas you chose in further depth with questions such as:

• Are all children able to make the same level of progress in communication and language?
• How does the setting differentiate literacy support to meet the diverse needs of individual children? 
• Do all teachers in EYFS feel confident teaching PSED?
• What foundational knowledge do you teach in UW and how does it prepare children for learning in associated subject areas from Year 1 onwards?

3. Deep Dive Process Overview - use this to structure your internal deep dive in the early years foundation stage, working through the process of identifying your perceived strengths and weaknesses, observation and questioning, and creating a plan of action. 

4. Deep Dive Evidence Exploration - a handy place to collate all your observation notes when conducting your early years deep dive.

5. EYFS Subject Knowledge Question Bank - while not always part of an internal deep dive process, these questions can be extremely helpful in probing staff understanding of the EYFS seven areas of learning.

EYFS leads will find this pack extremely useful to explore the effectiveness of their early years provision. Curriculum leaders, KS1 phase leaders, senior leaders, headteachers or anyone else with responsibility for teaching and learning will also find the pack beneficial, whether they use it to conduct a deep dive themselves or support their EYFS leader to prepare for an Ofsted inspection.

Knowing you may have to go through an Ofsted inspection can cause feelings of stress, anxiety and worry, especially if you’re thinking about what questions Ofsted will ask about EYFS and how you’ll answer. This pack supports that thinking process, especially if you work alongside other leaders to consider what makes great teaching and learning in the EYFS, and how your school does or doesn’t do this. 

However, it’s not just about preparing for an Ofsted inspection or doing things because Ofsted might want to see them - it’s about understanding the picture of your EYFS provision and knowing its strengths and weaknesses so you can get amazing outcomes for all of your children. It’s also important to know that even if you conduct an internal deep dive and find there are gaps, you can use this to formulate your next steps in an action plan, which will help to ensure improvement for all.

Key questions answered:

• What is a deep dive?
• What is the purpose of Ofsted’s deep dives into areas of your curriculum?
• What does an Ofsted deep dive look like?
• Why might I want to conduct my own internal deep dive into our EYFS provision?
• Who should I involve in an internal deep dive?
• How could I structure an internal deep dive?
• How can I inform staff of the deep dive findings?

Deep dive packs for all other national curriculum subjects are available from Honeyguide. Even better, if you buy two or more packs, you get 20% off each one - perfect for if you lead multiple subjects or want to get together with other subject leader colleagues to get more value.

Core Subjects:

• Primary English (Reading and Phonics) Deep Dive 
• Primary English (Writing, SPAG and Spoken Language) Deep Dive
• Secondary English Deep Dive
• Maths Deep Dive
• Science Deep Dive

Foundation Subjects:

• Art and Design Deep Dive
• Citizenship Deep Dive
• Computing Deep Dive
• Design and Technology (DT) Deep Dive
• Geography Deep Dive 
• History Deep Dive 
• Languages / MfL Deep Dive
• Music Deep Dive 
• Physical Education (PE) Deep Dive 
• PSHE, RSHE and RSE Deep Dive
• Religious Education (RE) Deep Dive 

Looking for every deep dive pack in one bundle?

If you're a head, senior leader, trust leader or hold responsibility for the full curriculum, our Deep Dive in Every Subject: Full Curriculum Set is the best value-for-money option to purchase all 16 packs.

• Deep Dive in Every Subject: Full Curriculum Set

If you lead the Early Years Foundation Stage, this EYFS Deep Dive pack can help you to explore your EYFS provision in-depth and build confidence for an upcoming Ofsted inspection or deep dive.