The Early Years Foundation Stage

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. From when your child is born up until the age of 5, their early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and we are here to support their development, care and learning needs.

Nurseries registered to deliver the EYFS must follow a legal document called the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

What is the EYFS Framework – why do we have one?

The EYFS Framework exists to support all professionals working in the EYFS to help your child, and was developed with a number of early years experts and parents.
From  September 2021 the framework has been revised to make it clearer and easier to use, with more focus on the things that matter most. This new framework also has a greater emphasis on your role in helping your child develop.
It sets out:

• The legal welfare requirements that everyone registered to look after children must follow to keep your child safe and promote their welfare

• The 7 areas of learning and development which guide professionals’ engagement with your child’s play and activities as they learn new skills and knowledge

There is also guidance for the professionals supporting your child on planning the learning activities, and observing and assessing what and how your child is learning and developing.

More information can be obtained from the EYFS website (http://www.foundationyears.org.uk)

New EYFS Reforms:

Parent and Carer Information Sheet

 The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) birth to end of reception, is being reformed and there is a new EYFS framework that all schools and settings will have to follow from September 2021. These national changes have been made to better support all young children’s learning and development. It is also the aim that the new framework will better prepare children for the transition into key stage 1.

There are some elements of the EYFS that have not significantly changed and some that have. Below are some of the key points from the new EYFS reforms that include relevant changes which parents, carers and children may notice or experience.

• Staff will be spending less time on large amounts of written observations and assessments for evidence collection. This means they can spend more time supporting and engaging with the children and their learning and development needs.

• Children will no longer be assessed against statements from an age band category. Instead, staff will use their experience and knowledge to monitor if a child’s learning and development is on track for their age.

• The early learning goals at the end of reception have been changed to become more clear and easier to understand. Staff will use their judgements to assess if the children have met these goals at the end of the EYFS and inform parents and carers.

• There is an emphasis on improving children’s language and vocabulary through increasing opportunities for conversations, reading of a wide range of books and holding discussions around activities in other areas of learning.

• Literacy and numeracy skills focused on in the EYFS have been adapted to better match up with the national curriculum that starts in year 1.

• There is no longer an exceeding judgement at the end of reception. Children will instead be challenged to have a greater depth and understanding of ideas.

• Safeguarding and welfare of children is still a priority, with the added mention of teaching children about the importance of good oral health and how to keep teeth clean and healthy. Page 1 of 2 visit twinkl.co

How could you help learning and development at home to support the new EYFS reforms?

• Read stories daily to your child and use them as an opportunity to talk about the characters and events in the story. You could also discuss some of the details children have spotted in the pictures, such as the character’s facial expressions.

• Have lots of conversations with your child throughout the day. Try and increase their vocabulary by using a wide range of words.

• Practise counting with your child and looking at small groups of items. Explore what happens to numbers when you put these small groups of items together or split a larger group into two smaller groups.

• Support your child’s early reading by practising phonic skills, such as recognising letter sounds and blending them together to read words. Also, support your child with their writing by checking they are forming their letters in the correct way and holding a pencil properly.

• Encourage your child to make healthy food and drink choices, especially related to sugar content and how this can affect teeth. Also, support your child to properly brush their teeth at least twice a day at home.

• Plan activities that allow your child to be active and develop their strength through large body movements as well as smaller, more precise movements.