What is the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework?

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework is a legal document setting out what nurseries should do to promote the welfare and safety of each child and to ensure their early years experience is happy, fun and secure and they fulfil their individual potential.

The safeguarding and welfare requirements specify what nurseries need to do to keep children safe and healthy, for example:

Having the correct policies and procedures in place.
Ensuring staff are suitable.
The staff to child ratios that must be observed.
How to administer medicines.
How to promote active and healthy lifestyles and diets.
Ensuring the appropriate environment.
What risk assessments to undertake

The areas of learning and development guide professionals working with your child to promote a broad range of age appropriate skills and knowledge. There are seven inter-connected areas of learning and development in the EYFS. Your child should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first as they form the basis for healthy development and facilitate further learning. These are:

Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development

As your child grows so will their curriculum and they will develop skills and knowledge in the 4 specific areas. These are:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

The assessment arrangements ensure staff have an in depth knowledge of your child; their interests, personalities and learning styles. This is achieved through quality observation to determine what they can already do, and their own personal level of development. We then use this information to plan appropriately challenging activities and experiences to enable your child to reach their next targets. This continual cycle of observation and assessment coupled with thoughtful planning enables us to understand your child’s level of achievement and to measure their progress.

Your key person will discuss your child’s targets with you and make suggestions on what you can do at home to develop areas of learning. By working in partnership we will be able to identify and address any learning and development needs and access additional support as necessary.

The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) set out the levels of progress that your child is expected to attain in the areas of learning and development by the time they are 5 years old.