What parents/carers need to know
What is the EYFS?
The
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) was originally launched in 2008. It is the
statutory framework for all early years providers in England but it is held in
high regard worldwide. The Statutory
Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage sets the standards that all
early years providers must meet. Early
years providers in England who provide care and learning for children from
birth to the end of reception class must comply with the EYFS Statutory
Framework. Ofsted regulate and inspect all early years providers against the
safeguarding and welfare requirements and areas of learning to determine how
well children are kept safe and healthy. From time to time the EYFS is updated
and refreshed, so far this has happened in 2012, 2014 and 2017.
What is changing?
From
September 2021 a revised EYFS will come into force. The key messages about the
reforms include:
- Reducing
practitioner workload and needless paperwork to allow for more quality time and
interactions with the children
- Improving the outcomes of all children and addressing/reducing
the disadvantage gaps
- The
importance of workforce knowledge and professional development to inform
assessments. Reflect upon the need to
assess every child’s development against ‘check lists’, saving formal steps of
assessment for when they are necessary
What do the changes mean to
me as a parent/carer?
The
safety of your child and the quality of the education provided will not change.
You may not see any changes in terms of the activities and opportunities on
offer to your child/ren. However, you may notice that we are not physically
recording as many observations and assessments of progress. Please be reassured that we will still be
supporting your child’s development and responding to their interests. We will be using our professional judgements
to assess your child’s development during our daily interactions and
activities.
We still
want to keep parents up to date with their children’s learning and development,
and give you snapshots of their nursery day, so we plan to offer the following
from the autumn term.
We will
continue to upload photos to Tapestry. These will be a mixture of group and
Individual updates and we would like you to continue to upload updates from
home, as this really supports the children’s language and confidence to share
information. It also helps us to offer
different resources to support their learning using their interests from home.
- Christmas and Summer term, we will send you a development
summary for your child. This will tell you what we have been learning, what
we’ve been enjoying, talk about their wellbeing and whether their development
is as expected or if there is anything we need to work on. We plan to continue
to do this through tapestry.
- The progress
check at 2 years is still a mandatory assessment point and we will still share
your child’s development and progress with you.
Our
pedagogy
- We believe children are powerful learners,
every child can make progress in their learning, with the right help
- We believe effective pedagogy is a mix of
different approaches. Children learn
through play, by adults modelling, by observing each other and through guided
learning and direct teaching.
- Our practitioners carefully organise enabling
environments for high-quality play.
Sometimes, they make time and space available for children to invent
their own play, Sometimes, they join in to sensitively support and extend
children’s learning.
- Children in the early years also learn through
group work, when practitioners guide their learning.
- Older children need more of this guided
learning.
- A well-planned learning environment, indoors
and outside, is an important aspect of pedagogy.
Our curriculum
The 7 areas of learning and
development within the EYFS have not changed, these are:
The
prime areas
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and
emotional development
Specific areas
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design
The prime areas of learning form the essential foundations for healthy development
and future learning. Once a solid start has formed within the prime areas we continue to
build upon these skills, opening to explore more learning opportunities within
the specific areas of learning.
These 7 areas are the basis for our
curriculum. Careful thought is given to inform our enabling environments
(indoors and outdoors), to provide resources, activities and learning
opportunities to meet each child’s unique requirements. Ofsted call this ‘curriculum’. Our curriculum is very flexible and
responsive to follow children’s interests and those totally unplanned learning
opportunities that sometimes come out of the blue, such as it unexpectedly
snowing, etc!
Young children learn through
play. The EYFS refers to the
Characteristics of Effective Learning.
These are:
• Playing and exploring
• Active learning
• Creating and thinking critically
Every EYFS provider has their own
bespoke curriculum, to support each child’s unique developmental pathway,
following their interests and fascinations.
We understand that this information is lengthy and complex.
Please feel free to speak to your child’s keyworker or Lisa to discuss this
further.
Should you have any questions, concerns or queries, please
don’t hesitate to contact us by email or phone.
Yours Sincerely
The Buckles and Bows Team
