Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Early Years Foundation Stage

https://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage

The EYFS provides a framework that children progress through until the end of the reception year at school. It outlines what adults must do to help children learn and develop and to be healthy and safe.

It is based on four important principles that influence Early Years Practice:

• A Unique Child
  Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

• Positive Relationships
  Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

• Enabling Environments
  Children learn well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents/carers.

• Learning and Development
  Children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates. Their learning is not neat and orderly!

There are 7 areas of development in the EYFS.  The three prime areas are crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and for building children’s capacity to learn and to help them form relationships and thrive. We therefore concentrate on these areas with our youngest babies and toddlers:

• Communication and Language
• Personal, Social and Emotional
• Physical

Once these are embedded, they are strengthened and applied through the four specific areas:

• Expressive Art and Design
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World