The Early Years (EY) key stage in England comprises the nursery year (ages 3-4) and the reception year (ages 4-5), with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) covering children from birth to 5 years old. Planning and completing evaluations in the EY has all the challenges of evaluations in other key stages, plus the constraints of working with very busy, often under-resourced settings, and very young children who are only just getting used to being at school. Baseline testing is often needed due to the lack of prior attainment data, and most testing with young children needs to be completed one-to-one. This paper aims to provide a set of focused, practical recommendations for teams planning to conduct EY evaluations for the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). It is intended as a concise summary of lessons learnt from past evaluations and does not aim to provide an exhaustive list of risks or mitigation strategies.