The Early Years Foundation Stage
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old.
All schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers must follow the EYFS, including childminders, preschools, nurseries and school reception classes.
| A Unique Child | Positive Relationships | Enabling Evironments | Learning and Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. | Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person | The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning | Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. All areas of Learning and Development are equally important and inter-connected. |
There are then 7 areas of learning and development which chart the children’s development from Birth – 5years. These are broken down into the Prime and Specific areas. Children under 2 years old are observed within the Prime areas and children over 2 years old are observed within both the Prime and Specific areas.
| 3 Prime Areas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) | Communication and Language (C&L) | Physical Development (PD) |
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| 4 Specific Areas | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Literacy (L) | Mathematics (M) | Knowledge and Understanding the World (KUTW) | Expressive Arts and Designs (EAD) |
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Alongside these areas of development there are also the Characteristics of Effective Learning which describes how your child learns best.
The 3 Characteristics of Effective Learning are:
Playing and Exploring
Engagement – finding out and exploring, playing with what they know and being willing to ‘have a go’.
Active Learning
Motivation – Being involved and concentrating, keep trying, enjoying achieving what they set out to do.
Creating and thinking critically
Thinking – Having their own ideas, making links, choosing ways to do things.
Staff will refer to these areas of learning and characteristics when planning and preparing activities and also when assessing and observing your child.
Planning
Weekly planning incorporates the individual child’s ideas and interests as well as carefully planned adult led activities, ensuring we support every child’s individual wellbeing and development.
Assessments
Your child’s progress will be recorded within their own learning journey, over time it will tell a story about your child, their learning, friends and the experiences they have enjoyed sharing with others.
At this age so much happens so quickly and each individual learning journey will be brought to life with observations, photographs and videos.
Continual observation and assessment, helps to plan for and support individual wellbeing and development.
Parents are the child’s primary educators and we actively encourage them to share within their child’s learning and achievements. Developing a good partnership between parent and carer enables us to plan more effectively to help your child’s learning and development.
For further information on the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage please click here