What is The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)?

The EYFS is how the Government and Early Years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and the age of 5. This is a very important stage in your child’s life as it gets them ready for school and future learning.

The EYFS is a document outlining what and how early years professionals support individual children. It has different categories including the welfare requirements, Development Matters, characteristics of effective learning and Assessments.

The welfare requirements:

  • We know that children learn best when they are healthy, feel safe and secure and have positive relationships with adults. The safeguarding and welfare requirements are to help early years practitioners create a welcoming, safe and stimulating environments where children are excited to learn. The requirements cover many different areas including:
  • Safeguarding – each setting must have a Designated safeguard lead and all staff are trained in safeguarding to be able to identify signs of abuse.
  • Suitability to work with children – each practitioner has a DBS check before they are allowed to work with children alone.
  • Medication - staff and children’s medication is recorded with time date and dosage taken, all medication is locked away.
  • Food – children’s individual needs with dietary are followed and staff are trained in the event of choking, allergic reactions etc.
  • Key person- each child has key person to help with the transition into the setting they are also responsible for the individual child’s learning journeys.

Publications – Working Together to Safeguard children, Prevent Duty guidance, Keeping children safe in education

Development Matters

This is a non-statutory curriculum guidance aimed to help all early years professionals. It sets out in broad ages and stages what children need to learn and what they need to be able to do next. Practitioners need to be able to adjust their teaching to match individual children’s learning. Children all learn differently, the characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

  • Playing and exploring children investigate and experience things and ‘have a go’.
  • Active learning: children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achieving.
  • Creating and thinking critically: children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things (taken from the statutory framework for the EYFS).

There are seven areas of learning which are divided into two areas Prime and Specific

The Prime areas are: Personal, Social and Emotional, Communication and Language and Physical

These are always in action for young children in every activity, they learn about feelings and a sense of self and others, physically engaged using senses and movements and learning to communicate and listen to others. The prime areas are the core to learning through life.

Specific areas are: Literacy, Maths, Understanding of the world and Expressive arts and Design are bolted onto the prime areas of learning.

Assessments

Children are observed during their play this enables early years practitioners to learn how they play, their interests and their level of development. The two assessments that are required are the two year check and the EYFS profile which is completed at the end of reception year.

Two Year Check – this is usually done in the early years setting with parents, keyperson and Health Visitor, by doing it together a complete picture of the child is created. The two year check looks at the child’s development both at home and the setting, it will help to identify any area of development that may need extra support.

The EYFS profile - is completed by teaching staff at the end of reception year, it looks at the child’s work over a period of time and a written report is done for both Prime and Specific areas of learning.

Useful websites: