Early Years Foundation Stage

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which 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 support their development, care and learning needs.

Nurseries, pre-schools, reception classes and childminders 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.

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

how my child will be learning

The EYFS Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development.

Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:

  • Communication and language;

  • Physical development

  • Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas.

These are:

  • Literacy;

  • Mathematics;

  • Understanding the world; and

  • Expressive arts and design.

These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities; We plan in the moment. This means that every time an adult looks at and listens to a child, they are assessing and planning how to respond. These assessments and plans are based on the adults’ observations of the child in that moment and also draw on any previous knowledge of the child. The response is planned in the moment and is uniquely suited to that unique child in that unique moment. The adult will be considering whether they can add anything in that moment to benefit the child. If so, they will respond and interact accordingly, supporting the child to develop.

as a mum or dad, how can i help with my child’s learning?

All the fun activities that you do with your child at home are important in supporting their learning and development, and have a really long lasting effect on your child’s learning as they progress through school.

Even when your child is very young and is not yet able to talk, talking to them helps them to learn and understand new words and ideas. If you make the time every day to do some of the following things with your child it will make a real difference to your child’s confidence as a young learner.

  • Sing and tell nursery rhymes

  • Talk about the numbers, colours, words and letters you see when you are out and about

  • On a trip to the supermarket, talk about all the different packaging shapes

  • Share a book

  • Use the weather – shadows, rain puddles, snow, wind, mist and sun – to extend your child’s vocabulary

  • Cook / bake together

  • Plant seeds or bulbs in a pot or garden patch

how can i find out how my child is getting on?

It is important that you and the staff caring for your child work together. You need to feel comfortable about exchanging information and discussing things that will benefit your child. These conversations can be with your child’s “key person”. This is the person who:

  • Is your main point of contact within the setting

  • Helps your child to become settled, happy and safe

  • Is responsible for your child’s care, development and learning

  • Takes a careful note of your child’s progress, sharing this with you and giving you ideas as to how to help your child at home

  • Your child will be a focus child 3 times a year

The progress check at age 2

At some point after your child turns 2 you will receive a written summary of how your child is progressing against the 3 prime areas of learning:

  • communication and language;

  • physical development; and

  • personal, social and emotional development

This check will highlight areas where your child is progressing well and any where they might need some extra help or support – and how mums and dads and other family members or carers can work with the key person to help. You might find it useful to share the information from the check with other professionals such as health visitors (who can use it as part of the health and development review)

Where can i find more information?

Staff at preschool are happy to answer questions we welcome speaking with you. In addition, you can find more information at:

https://foundationyears.org.uk/