Good level of development rises to 72.3% at end of reception

The Department for Education (DfE) says 72.3% of children in England had a good level of development at the end of reception in 2025 to 2026.

That is up from 68.3% a year earlier, and from 65.2% in 2021 to 2022, the first year after the reforms to the early years foundation stage (EYFS).

The DfE said the rise of 4.0 percentage points was the largest since 2021 to 2022. On average, it means one more child in every class reaching a good level of development.

What the figures show

The figures come from teachers' assessments at the end of the EYFS, usually in the summer term of reception. In all, 576,700 children were assessed, down from 589,500 a year earlier.

A child has a good level of development if they are at the expected level in 12 early learning goals. These cover communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; and mathematics.

• 70.9% of children were at the expected level in all 17 early learning goals, up from 66.9%.
• Writing was still the goal with the lowest share of children at the expected level, but it rose the most, by 3.9 percentage points.
• Girls (78.6%) were still more likely than boys (66.3%) to have a good level of development, but the gap narrowed to 12.3 percentage points.
• The gap between children eligible for free school meals (54.8%) and those not eligible (76.4%) widened for the third year in a row, to 21.6 percentage points.
• Summer-born children (66.1%) were less likely than autumn-born children (78.4%) to have a good level of development.
• 24.1% of children with special educational needs (SEN) had a good level of development, up from 20.6%.

The DfE said changes from year to year should be seen in the context of the government's 2028 target and its wider work. This includes greater access to EYFS profile data for accountable bodies from September 2025, updates to the EYFS profile handbook and new assessment support.

Targets for local authorities

The government's target is for 75% of children to reach a good level of development by 2028, set out in its strategy Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life.

On the same day, the DfE published the statutory targets it confirmed to local authorities in November 2025. Most of them, 131 areas, have been asked to raise their figure by 9 percentage points from 2023 to 2024 levels. No local authority was set a target above 80%.

A local target will only count as met if children eligible for free school meals have benefited at least equally from the improvement, the DfE said. Local authorities have published Best Start local plans setting out how they aim to meet their targets.