The Early Years Foundation Stage
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life. For a useful guide about what to expect at each stage, please read the following document.
Guidance to your child’s learning and development in the early years foundation stage: What to expect, when?
4Children – What to expect, when? (Parent Guide)
The Early Learning Goals
Personal ,Social And Emotional: Making Relationships
Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children.
Personal, Social And Emotional: Self-Confidence And Self-Awareness
Children are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They are confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t need help.
Personal, Social And Emotional: Managing Feelings And Behaviour
Children talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.
Communication And Language: Listening And Attention
Children listen attentively in a range of situations. They listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions. They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity.
Communication And Language: Understanding
Children follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.
Communication And Language: Speaking
Children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.
Physical Development: Moving And Handling
Children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements.They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.
Physical Development: Health And Self Care
Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.
Literacy: Reading
Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.
Literacy : Writing
Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.
Mathematics: Numbers
Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.
Mathematics: Shape, Space And Measure
Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognise, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.
Understanding The World: People And Communities
Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. They know that other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.
Understanding The World: The World
Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.
Understanding The World:Technology
Children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. They select and use technology for particular purposes.
Expressive Arts And design: Exploring And Using Media And Materials
Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
Expressive Arts And Design: Being Imaginative
Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories.
EYFS (Profile) Assessment Information 2020-2021
Background
The EYFS Profile is the nationally employed assessment tool that enables teachers to record their observations at the end of the Reception year, and to summarise their pupils’ progress towards the Early Learning Goals. It covers each of the seven areas of learning contained in the curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage. This assessment will also help with the children’s transition into year 1 and help set individual targets.
How are children assessed?
Early Years staff will make profile judgements based on cumulative observational evidence recorded over the course of the year. This will be from work in books, observations from continuous provision, which is uploaded to their online profile (Class Dojo), floor books, post-it snap shots and from discussions, both class and individual. All of these systems help build one big picture of each child.
The EYFS profile must be completed for each child and submitted to the Local Authority by no later than Friday 25 June.
How are consistent judgements made?
Reception staff record each child’s level of development against the 17 early Learning goals as (1) Emerging, (2) Expected or (3) Exceeding. We make regular assessments of children’s learning, and we use this information to ensure that future planning reflects identified needs. Assessment in the Early Years takes the form of both formal and informal observations. Assessment is completed regularly and involves both the teacher and other practitioners in the setting, as appropriate. Staff work closely throughout the year and have a good understanding of the children’s individual strengths and weaknesses. The final judgments are made after looking at all of the different pieces of evidence and discussion.
How we report to parent/carers? (These include the national judgements that must be reported)
We will provide parents/carers with a written summary of their child’s attainment against the ELGs. For each ELG we will state whether your child is:
- (1) not yet reaching expected levels (‘emerging’)
- (2) meeting ‘expected’ levels
- (3) ‘exceeding’ expected levels
The written report will also:
- states the child’s attainment against the ELGs
- summarises attainment in all areas of learning
- comments on their general progress including the characteristics of effective learning
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