“Children learn and develop more from birth to five years old than at any other time in their lives. If children are at risk of falling behind the majority, the best time to help them to catch up and keep up is in the early years. Every child can make progress, if they are given the right support. When we give every child the best start in their early years, we give them what they need today. We also set them up with every chance of success tomorrow.”  Development Matters (DfE 2021)

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 

All children deserve the care and support they need to have the best start in life. Children learn and develop at a faster rate from birth to five years old than at any other time in their lives, so their experiences in early years have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe, and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning provide the foundation children need to fulfil their potential.

The Early years foundation stage statutory framework 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’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

The EYFS is about what children learn, as well as how they learn. Effective practice is a mix of different approaches. Children learn through play, by adults modelling, by observing each other and through adult-guided learning.

At St Mary's we use the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory framework together with Development Matters - Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage and Chris Quigley's Curriculum Design in Early Years to provide a bespoke, inclusive curriculum for all our children. 

The EYFS Framework describes how settings should work with children and their families to support their development and learning. It describes how your child should be kept safe and cared for and how all concerned can make sure that your child achieves the most that they can in their earliest years of life. This framework is based on four important principles:

A Unique Child– Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. This means we recognise that children develop in individual ways and at varying rates. We are inclusive and ensure that no child or family is discriminated against, and that the health, well being and safety of the children in our care is paramount.

Positive Relationships – Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships.  We see parents as partners - when parents & Nursery staff work together, it has a positive impact on children’s development and learning. 

Enabling Environments – Children learn and develop well in enabling environments in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.  By giving the children a rich and varied learning environment, making use of both inside and outside areas, we support every child in their learning and development. Activities are planned by observing the children in order to understand their individual needs.

Learning and Development— Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities. We recognise that play is a child’s work and that children learn best through physical and mental challenges. Playing is the child’s way of discovering the world around him/her and how it works. Play is a natural vehicle for learning because it motivates young children. Learning experiences with a variety of materials provide opportunities for exploration and experimentation, construction and representation, creation and imagination, learning skills and concepts, repetition, consolidation, socialisation and emotional security. Early experiences affect children’s attitudes to learning. They create the basis for later learning.

EYFS areas of learning
The Early Years Foundation Stage is a curriculum from birth to five years old, we follow the strands set by this curriculum and concentrate the learning opportunities on the seven areas of learning (3 Prime and 4 Specific) which are:
 

Prime

• Personal Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language

Specific

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

None of these areas can be delivered in isolation from the others. They are equally important and depend on each other. All areas are delivered through a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities. Through play and practical experiences, children learn about the world and their place in it. They learn through first-hand experiences, talk, books and equipment. We set realistic yet challenging expectations that meet the needs of our children. We achieve this by planning to meet the needs of boys and girls, children with special educational needs, children who are more able, children with disabilities, children from all social and cultural backgrounds, children of different ethnic groups and those from diverse linguistic backgrounds.