The Early Years Foundation Stage
Provision for the development and learning of children from birth to five years is guided by the Early Years Foundation Stage. Our nursery reflects the four overarching principles of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE 2021):
A Unique Child
Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Positive Relationships
Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
Enabling Environments
Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between educators, parents and/or carers.
Learning and Development
Children develop and learn 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 (SEND).
How we provide for learning and development
Children start to learn about the world around them from the moment they are born. The care and education offered by our setting helps children to continue to do this by providing all the children with interesting activities that are appropriate for their age and stage of development.
The Areas of Learning and Development comprise:
Prime Areas
Personal, social and emotional development.
Physical development.
Communication and language.
Specific Areas
Literacy.
Mathematics.
Understanding the world.
Expressive arts and design.
Assessment
We assess how the children in our care are learning and developing by observing them. We use information that we gain from observations of the children, to understand their progress and where this may be leading them. We believe that parents know their children best and we will ask you to contribute to assessments by sharing information about what your child likes to do at home and how you, as parents, are supporting development.
We may make periodic assessment summaries of children’s achievement based on our on-going observations. These help us to build a picture of a child’s progress during their time with us and form part of their records of achievement/learning journeys. We undertake these assessment summaries at regular intervals, as well as at times of transition, such as when a child moves into a different group or when they go on to school.
Progress Check at age two
The Early Years Foundation Stage requires that we supply parents and carers with a short-written summary of their child’s development in the three prime areas of learning and development – Personal, Social and Emotional development, Physical development and Communication and Language, when a child is aged between 24 – 36 months. Your child’s key person is responsible for completing the check using information from on-going observations carried out as part of our everyday practice, taking account of the views and contributions of parents and other professionals.