Welcome to the EYFS
Welcome to the EYFS
An Extract Taken From The Statutory Framework Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the Early Years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all Early Years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life. The EYFS seeks to provide: • quality and consistency in all Early Years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind; • a secure foundation through learning and development opportunities which are planned around the needs and interests of each individual child, and are assessed and reviewed regularly; • partnership working between practitioners and with parents/carers; • equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported. Overarching Principles Four guiding principles should shape practice in Early Years’ settings. These are: • Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. • Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. • Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers. • Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. (See “the characteristics of effective teaching and learning”). The framework covers the education and care of all children in Early Years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The EYFS specifies requirements for learning and development, and for safeguarding children and promoting their welfare. The learning and development requirements cover: • The areas of learning and development which must shape activities and experiences (educational programmes) for children in all Early Years settings.
• The early learning goals that providers must help children work towards (the knowledge, skills and understanding children should have at the end of the academic year in which they turn five) • Assessment arrangements for measuring progress (and requirements for reporting to parents and/or carers). The safeguarding and welfare requirements cover the steps that providers must take to keep children safe and promote their welfare. The Areas of Learning and Development There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in Early Years’ settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These three areas, the prime areas, are: • Communication and Language, • Personal, Social and Emotional Development, • Physical Development. Providers must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are: • Literacy, • Mathematics, • Understanding the World, • Expressive Arts and Design. Educational programmes must involve activities and experiences for children, as set out under each of the areas of learning. Communication and Language The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children’s language effectively. Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, story-telling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.
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