EYFS
The Early Years Foundation Stage refers to provision in school for the preschool and Reception classes. We follow the EYFS Framework which explains how and what children will be learning from birth to 5 years old. This curriculum provides the foundations that children need in order to develop and make the most of their abilities as they grow. Children’s early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs. 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 before the age of five will have a major impact on their future life chances.
Children will learn skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:
- Communication and language (Listening, Attention and Understanding, Speaking)
- Physical development (Gross motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills)
- Personal, social and emotional development (Self Regulation, Managing Self, Building Relationships)
These prime areas are those most essential for a child’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
- Literacy (Comprehension, Word Reading, Writing)
- Mathematics (Number, Numerical Patterns)
- Understanding the world (Past and Present, People, Culture and Communities, The Natural World)
- Expressive arts and design (Creating with Materials, Being Imaginative and Expressive)
All 7 areas of learning are used to plan children’s learning and activities. The professionals teaching and supporting your child will make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. This is a little bit like the curriculum in the rest of the school but it's suitable for very young children, and it's designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child's unique needs and interests.
Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside. It is very important that they develop social skills, such as turn-taking, sharing and independence, which help them greatly in the next stages of their learning. The guiding principles that shape our practice in the Early Years are that children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact with other people, and in the world around them. Development is not an automatic process, however. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments.
If you visited our preschool or Reception class, you would see enthusiastic children who were confidently exploring and learning through play in our cosy and calm classroom environment. Our classrooms would be filled with a mixture of natural, open ended, heuristic play items and treasures intended to inspire and provide opportunities for our children to 'think outside of the box'. Our active learners would be participating in a range of activites inspired by their fascinations and curiosities. Our highly skilled EYFS adults would be spending time nurturing positive relationships with all children through engagement with play and learning opportunities. Adults will observe our children carefully in their play, assessing their interests, development and learning before planning exciting and appropriately challenging enhancement activities and experiences to extend our children’s learning. Enhanced activities can be accessed independently or alongside an adult. These planned learning opportunities hold a focus on developing the process and not the end product, ensuring the outcome is individual to each child and their development stage. In the environment, there are also opportunities to practise and consolidate skills and knowledge taught during adult-led time. Maths, Phonics and sharing a quality text are a key part of the Foundation Stage day and help to develop early basic skills.
Assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children’s progress, understand their needs, and to plan activities and support. Ongoing assessment is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners observing children to understand their level of achievement, interests and learning styles, and to then shape learning experiences for each child reflecting those observations. In their interactions with children, practitioners should respond to their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress, and observations that parents and carers share. We make systematic observations and assessments of each child's achievements, interests and learning styles. We then use these observations and assessments to identify learning priorities and plan relevant and motivating learning experiences for each child.
Each child’s level of development is assessed against the early learning goals. At the end of the Reception year, practitioners will indicate whether children are meeting expected levels of development:
- Emerging, not yet reaching expected levels of development for age
- Expected