Early Years Foundation Stage

Pippins follows the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) curriculum, revised in 2017.  

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the statutory framework that sets the standards that all Early Years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children are ready for school and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

 The EYFS seeks to provide:
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·         Quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind
·         A secure foundation through learning and development opportunities which are planned around the needs and interests of each individual child and are assessed and reviewed regularly
·         Partnership working between practitioners and with parent and /or carers
·         Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included an supported

The EYFS specifies seven areas for learning and development  that must shape the education we provide:

• 3 prime areas of development which are crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and building their learning capacity.  These are Personal Social and Emotional, Communication and Language and Physical Development.
• 4 specific areas, through which prime areas are strengthened and applied.  These are;​  Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design

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 In addition learning and development provision must cover the early learning goals that we must help children work towards (these are the knowledge, skills and understanding children should have at the end of the academic year they turn 5) together with assessment arrangements for measuring progress.
 
The safeguarding and welfare requirements cover the steps that we must take to keep the children safe and promote their welfare.
 
Four guiding principles should shape practice in early year’s settings.  These are:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs an there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/ or carers
• Children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates.  The framework covers children with special educational needs and disabilities

A range of non-statutory guidance and other materials has been produced by the sector to support the framework, and is available on a number of Early Years websites including the Foundation Years website http://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage

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