Early Years Foundation Stage

Early Years Foundation Stage

(Pre School, Nursery and Reception) 

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 we strive to 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. 

Purpose and Aims 

EYFS seeks to provide:

• Quality and consistency, 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 and/or carers;
• Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

Overarching Principles of the EYFS 

Four guiding principles shape practice in our Early Years.  

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, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers; and
• Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

The EYFS framework covers the education and care of all children in early years’ provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The Seven Areas of Learning and Development:

There are seven areas of learning and development that shapes our educational programmes in EYFS. 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 development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations. 

Physical Development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children are also guided to understand the importance of physical activity, and making healthy choices in relation to food.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.

We also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. 

The specific areas are:

Literacy involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials including books, poems, and other written materials to ignite their interest.

Mathematics Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding - such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built.

Understanding the World involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment

Expressive Arts and Design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.