SummaryA survey of 125 local education authorities shows that record‐keeping has evolved considerably in the past five years and that nearly half of the authorities have some kind of standard form that is used for the under‐fives. Although records vary from authority to authority, most standard records take the form of checklists or structured comments under a series of headings. Whilst showing some similarities to the Keele and NFER pre‐school assessment guides, most LEA standard records are shorter than either and are often supplemented by ‘home‐grown’ nursery records. Purposes vary slightly from nursery to infant school (with transfer figuring more predominantly in the latter) but in general the major reason behind record‐keeping is to plan for the needs of individual children. Records are designed and used mainly by trained teachers with little involvement of nursery assistants.