EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE
Our Early Years Department follows the Early Years Foundation Stage, this is the curriculum that is set by the British government which all schools in England must follow.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is for children from birth to age 5.
This is an important part of your child’s life as it sets a foundation for their future learning and will prepare them for Primary school when they turn five years old.
The EYFS supports a child’s development and their experiences should be happy, safe and exciting, allowing children to develop at their own rate and pace.
The EYFS is divided into 7 areas of learning; children gain an understanding and knowledge through these areas at different stages.
The 7 areas of learning are divided into prime areas and specific areas. To begin with, the children will focus on these 3 prime areas:
Listening and attention
Understanding
Speaking
Moving and handling
Health and self-care
Making relationships
Self-confidence and self-awareness
Managing feelings and behaviour.
The prime areas will help to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
Reading
Writing
Numbers
Shape, space and measure
People and communities
The world
Technology
Exploring and using media and materials
Being imaginative
Activities and the learning environment are carefully planned around the children’s own interests and needs.
The children’s learning is done through play, enabling children to learn and gain their knowledge and understanding, in a mixture of adult-initiated and adult-led activities.
Characteristics of Effective Learning
Children learn in lots of different ways and the EYFS recognises this. We must take into consideration that all children are different and know when it is necessary to support individual children as well as groups of children.
The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage identifies three characteristics of effective teaching and learning. These are:
PLAYING AND EXPLORING
Finding out and exploring:
Show curiosity about objects, events and people
Use their senses
Engage in open ended activities
Show interests in particular areas
Playing with what they know;
Pretend objects are things from their experience
Take on a role in their play
Act out experiences with others
Being willing to have a go:
Initiate activities and experiences
Seek challenges
Demonstrate a can-do attitude
Take risks
ACTIVE LEARNING
Being involved and concentrating;
Maintain focus for a period of time
Show high levels of energy
Concentrate without distractions
Pay attention to detail
Keep on trying;
Show persistence with an activity when faced with challenges
Demonstrate aspects of problem solving
Bounce back after difficulties
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do;
Proud of their accomplishments when faced with challenges
Enjoy meeting challenges for their own sake
CREATING AND THINKING CRITICIALLY
Having their own ideas;
Find ways to solve problems
Find new ways of doing things
Making Links;
Make links and notice patterns in their experience
Make predictions
Test their ideas
Develop ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect
Choosing ways to do things;
Plan, make decisions about how to approach a task, solve a problem and reach a goal
Check how well their activities are going
Change strategy as needed
Review how well the approach worked
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