An Introduction to The Early Years Foundation Stage

1. An Introduction to The Early Years Foundation Stage Setting the Standards for Learning, Development and Care for children from birth to five

2. From birth to the end of the Foundation Stage An integrated approach to care and education A principled play-based approach Strengthens the links between Birth to Three Matters and the Foundation Stage Incorporates elements of the National Standards Ensures a consistent approach to care, learning and development from birth to the end of the Foundation Stage Helps practitioners plan care and learning that is right for each child at each stage of their development The Early Years Foundation Stage – a single quality framework

3. childminders day nursery staff playgroups teachers headteachers 4 local authorities consulted children and parents managers LA officers lecturers national organisations Creating the EYFS: the consultation process(1) • Since 2005 the DfES and the Primary National Strategy have been working on producing the EYFS. • In 2005 a ‘Direction of Travel’ document was published and comment was invited from the early years sector. Many practitioners attended meetings and gave their views. They included:- • A first draft of the EYFS was then put together.

4. The formal DfES consultation then ran from May 2006 - end of July 2006 and received several thousand responses from the full range of providers, practitioners and national organisations. Those responses have been taken into account as fully as possible in the final version. Throughout the process of putting the final EYFS package together drafts have been trialled with many different groups and early years experts. The EYFS consultation process (2)

5. = EYFS brings these documents together…

6. …into this pack

7. The overarching aim of the EYFS is to help young children achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes: Be healthy; Stay safe; Enjoy and achieve; Make a positive contribution and Achieve economic well-being. Aim of the EYFS

8. The EYFS will achieve this aim by a principled approach to: Setting standards; Promoting equality of opportunity; Creating a framework for partnership working; Improving quality and consistency; Laying a secure foundation for future learning and development. Achieving the aim

9. A Principled Approach Theme: A Unique Child Principle : Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured Theme: Positive Relationships Principle: Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person. Theme: Learning and Development Principle: Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of learning and development are equally important and inter-connected. Theme: Enabling Environments Principle: The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.

10. The EYFS sets the standards for the learning, development and care young children should experience when they are attending a setting outside their family home, ensuring that every child makes progress and that no child gets left behind. The EYFS ensures equality of opportunity and promotes anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and not disadvantaged because of ethnicity, culture or religion, home language, family background, learning difficulties or disabilities, gender or ability.

11. The EYFS creates theframework for partnership working between parents and professionals, and between all the settings that the child attends. The EYFS improves quality and consistency in the early years sector through a universal set of standards which apply to all settings, ending the distinction between care and learning in the existing frameworks, and providing the basis for inspection and regulation.

12. The EYFS lays a secure foundation for future learning through learning and development that is planned around the individual needs and interests of the child, and informed by the use of ongoing observational assessment.