Enter EYFS summative judgements

An EYFS summative judgement records where a child is in one aspect of learning at an assessment point, such as autumn 1. Nursery and reception staff enter these judgements on the EYFS Summative Assessment (New) page. The EYFS reports and EYFS benchmarking use them.

For years 1 to 6, see Enter primary summative judgements, which works in the same way.

Before you start

You need:

• an edit role, such as Full Edit or Partial Edit
• to know which assessment point your school is recording, and the date judgements are due

Partial Edit and Minimal Edit can change judgements in the current academic year only, and read-only roles cannot change anything (Users and roles).

Agree as a team what each judgement means for nursery and reception children at each point in the year (Judgements, bands and age-related expectations).

Open your class

1. Go to Assessments.
2. In the Teacher Assessments card, select EYFS Summative Assessment (New).
3. In the Select Pupils box, choose a year group from the Year Group list, such as Reception, or your class from the Class list.
4. Select Open Assessment.

Choose a year group or a class, not both: a year group with a class from another year returns No Records Found.

The page opens at the current assessment point and shows the prime areas. The line above the grid confirms what you are looking at.

Reception at autumn 1, showing the prime areas.

Under each child’s name are their year group, their attendance percentage and any flags from your management information system (MIS), such as PP (pupil premium).

Choose the aspects you see

The page lists the 17 aspects that match the 17 early learning goals (ELGs), in two groups:

Group	Aspects
The prime areas	Listening, Attention and Understanding; Speaking; Self-Regulation; Managing Self; Building Relationships; Gross Motor Skills; Fine Motor Skills
The specific areas	Comprehension; Word Reading; Writing; Number; Numerical Patterns; Past and Present; People Culture and Communities; The Natural World; Creating with Materials; Being Imaginative and Expressive

To change the aspects on screen:

1. Select the subjects list, which shows something like 7 Subjects Selected.
2. Tick The prime areas or The specific areas to select every aspect in that group, or open a group and tick single aspects.

You can show up to 10 aspects at once, so look at the prime and specific areas separately.

Enter a judgement

1. Select the child’s cell under the aspect.
2. Choose Below, Just At, Securely At or Above.

Sonar saves the judgement straight away and shows an Assessment Saved message. To remove a judgement, select the cell and choose Clear Result.

Codes and colours match the primary page: B Below (pink), JA Just At (yellow), At Securely At (light green) and A Above (green). Your school can rename the judgements, but their meanings stay the same.

For earlier judgements, targets and other evidence, select a cell and then Triangulate (Check other evidence before you decide).

The three dots next to each aspect and each child’s name open Bulk Fill and Copy Data From Previous Term. They work as on the primary page: see Fill a column or row in one go.

Good practice

Base each judgement on what you know of the child. You do not need photos or notes to support it: the EYFS statutory framework requires no physical evidence, and Ofsted does not require photographic evidence.

Children working in a lower band

The judgement list offers the codes for the child’s own year group. For a child working at an earlier stage, select View All Codes and choose the code from the band that fits. The lowest is Engagement Model Band, which has one code (EM). Then come Pre-Entry Band, Entry 1 Band, Entry 2 Band, Nursery 1 Band, Nursery 2 Band and Reception Band.

Codes from a band below the child’s own show in red, and reports count them as Significantly Below. For example, a reception child working at the level expected of a 3 or 4-year-old gets a code from Nursery 2 Band.

View All Codes for a reception child. Lower bands show in red.

Use Engagement Model Band only for children your school assesses through the engagement model. Assess pupils working below their year group explains how reports treat children in lower bands.

Children working within the 0 to 3 band

Development Matters, the DfE’s non-statutory curriculum guidance, has three broad bands: birth to 3, 3 and 4-year-olds, and children in reception. Sonar has more EYFS bands, so record each judgement in the one that best matches where the child is working. The observation checkpoints in Development Matters can help:

Sonar band	Age the child reaches this school year	Development Matters band	Checkpoints that can help
Reception	5	Children in reception	None
Nursery 2	4	3 and 4-year-olds	4 years
Nursery 1	3	Birth to 3	2 to 3 years
Entry 2	2	Birth to 3	18 months and 2 years
Entry 1	1	Birth to 3	6, 7, 12 and 15 months

Checkpoints help you notice a child who may need extra support. They are not targets. Development Matters is on GOV.UK.

Record a start of year baseline

1. Open your class on EYFS Summative Assessment (New).
2. Select the assessment point list, which shows something like 2026-2027 - Autumn 1.
3. Under the current academic year, choose Start of Year Baseline.
4. Enter a judgement for each child and aspect.

Once autumn 1 has started, the page opens at autumn 1, and the baseline stays in the list.

Sonar does not store the statutory reception baseline assessment (RBA). Schools never receive the scores: the DfE uses them only as the starting point for a school-level progress measure at the end of KS2.

Summative judgements and the EYFS profile

Summative judgements are your school’s own, made through the year against your EYFS curriculum. The EYFS profile is the statutory assessment at the end of reception. Each of the 17 ELGs is recorded as 1 (emerging) or 2 (expected). A is only for a child exempted on religious or philosophical grounds, and a child who cannot be fully assessed is recorded as emerging. Enter profile results on Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), in the Statutory Assessments card: EYFS profile explains how.

In summer 2, complete the reception summative judgements too. They feed the progress reports and can be copied into year 1. The EYFS Good Level of Development Tracking report uses them to show which children are on track for a good level of development (GLD). See EYFS reports.

Copy reception judgements into year 1

At the start of year 1, you can copy each child’s reception summer 2 judgements onto the primary page as a starting point. Five aspects carry over, each to one subject:

Reception aspect	Year 1 subject
Word Reading	Reading
Writing	Writing
Number	Mathematics
The Natural World	Science
Speaking	Spoken Language

Other subjects start empty.

Before you copy, check that:

• the children have moved into year 1 in Sonar
• they have reception summer 2 judgements in these aspects
• your school’s EYFS and primary summative codes use the same code model

If the code models differ, you cannot copy. Enter the year 1 judgements by hand instead, then copy forward from them in later terms. If you are not sure, ask Juniper Education support before you start.

To copy the judgements:

1. Go to Assessments and select Primary Summative Assessment (New).
2. Choose Year 1 from the Year Group list, then select Open Assessment.
3. Check that the assessment point is the one you want to fill, such as 2026-2027 - Autumn 1.
4. Select the three dots next to a subject name, then select Copy Data From Previous Term.
5. In Select term to copy from, choose Previous Summer 2.
6. Select Copy, check the summary, then select Confirm Copy.
7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 for each of the five subjects.

Then review the copied judgements and change any that should differ in year 1. Copy judgements from an earlier point has more on copying.

Warning

Copying replaces any judgements already in those cells, and you cannot undo it. Copy before anyone starts entering year 1 judgements by hand.

Record religious education

The EYFS page has no aspect for religious education (RE), and you cannot add one. Record RE within People Culture and Communities, the aspect that covers religious and cultural communities.

The older EYFS (2020) page

EYFS (2020) Summative 7 Areas of Learning is an older page that shows the same judgements as EYFS Summative Assessment (New). A judgement entered on either page appears on both, so nothing colleagues entered on the older page is lost. Use the newer page for new judgements, because it has Triangulate and Copy Data From Previous Term.

On the older page, a cell opens Choose Code, which has Show All Codes in place of View All Codes. A Saved tick confirms each change. The page’s name also appears on Summative Code Labels, where your school renames its EYFS judgements (Assessment settings).

The older page shows the same judgements.

If something goes wrong

No children appear. Check that you did not choose a year group and a class that do not match. Classes with no pupils still appear in the Class list.

A child is missing. New pupils arrive from your MIS overnight. A nursery child also needs a start date and a unique pupil number (UPN), or a temporary UPN, in your MIS.

Reception judgements will not copy into year 1. Your EYFS and primary code models probably differ. Enter the year 1 judgements by hand.

You cannot change a judgement. Your role may be read-only, or your role may only edit the current academic year. Ask your Account Owner or Account Admin.

Related pages

• Enter primary summative judgements
• EYFS profile
• EYFS reports
• Record formative assessment
• Assessment points and the school year