As an Ofsted Registered provider, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The EYFS is a Statutory Framework (from 3 April 2017) which sets a comprehensive range of standards for settings providing childcare and education to children from birth to five years old.
The EYFS sets out:
Children in the EYFS learn by developing their Characteristics of Effective Learning which is aided by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.
There are 3 prime areas of learning in the EYFS:
• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social and emotional development
Providers must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.
The specific areas are:
• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design
Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) are a revived element in the current Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS). CoEL advocate that in planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn, and then reflect these in their practice. A child’s individual learning characteristic will determine the way they respond to both the teaching and learning taking place in the environment. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning identified by the EYFS are:
- playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
- active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and
- creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.