Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum
The Early Years Foundation Stage
The statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. It is guided by a framework called ‘Development Matters’ that sets out the learning, development and assessment requirements for all children until the end of their Reception year. All early years practitioners are required to pursue daily rich activities to support each child’s educational development across seven areas of learning.
Development matters non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage
Continuous Provision in Action in Early Years
The photos below show some examples of children directing their own learning through continuous provision. Our Early Years children are provided with large chunks of child initiated learning throughout the day. We call this ‘Busy Learning’ time. This allows them to use what they know in ways that interest them. The role of the adults in this time is to support and question the children; making observations and pushing the learning on further. Our children have the opportunity to free flow between the classroom and the outside area.
The outdoors supports physical development with resources and challenges being on a much larger scale including a mud kitchen and digging area, growing beds, as well as crates, drainpipes and wooden planks being used to create an endless range of structures. We provide these opportunities every day as we understand that children benefit from outside learning whatever the weather. There is a focus on the Prime Areas of learning, with a particular emphasis on Communication and Language, as these are the building blocks for all future learning. As well as this, reading and writing are promoted throughout all areas of provision. This ensures that the children's learning is purposeful and interests them.
We also have an additional learning space where the children can listen to and share stories in the cosy tree trunk nook or under the branches of our reading tree.
Early Years Classrooms
Each of the continuous provision areas in our Early Years classrooms is carefully planned and well-organised. All of the resources are displayed on open shelves so the children have free and easy access. The labelling of resources is used as a way to reinforce maths skills, such as containers with ten objects. This is a great opportunity for the children to practise their counting skills. There are silhouettes underneath containers with photos so that children can easily and independently tidy up resources when they have finished using them.
