Little Angels childminding

Committed to quality child care

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) brings together: Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (2000), the Birth to Three Matters (2002) framework and the National Standards for Under 8s Daycare and Childminding (2003), building a coherent and flexible approach to care and learning. All providers are required to use the EYFS to ensure that whatever setting parents choose, they can be confident that their child will receive a quality experience that supports their development and learning.

The EYFS is based on principles of inclusion which means that early years providers oppose discrimination and prejudice and welcome all families and children. They provide care and education for a wide range of children in environments that enable children to feel safe and supported and which extend their learning and development.

Throughout the EYFS stress is placed upon understanding each child and their family as unique, with different needs and concerns. Children’s development is presented under six overlapping phases. This overlap is intended to emphasise the fact that there can be big differences between the development of children of similar ages. At the same time age can be a cue, when taken with all other factors, to indicate that development may be atypical and that a child may need extra support.

Every Child Matters

Every Child Matters is the government agenda which focuses on bringing together services to support children and families. It sets out five major outcomes for children:

  • being healthy;
  • staying safe;
  • enjoying and achieving;
  • making a positive contribution;
  • economic well-being.

Each Principle into Practice card highlights a link to one of the five Every Child Matters outcomes. Using the EYFS effectively will enable settings to support children in meeting the outcomes. For further information visit Link to an external websitewww.everychildmatters.gov.uk


EYFS Profile

 
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a framework which was launched on 13 March 2007 and comes into force in September 2008. It is the new regulatory and quality framework for the provision of learning, development and care for children between birth and the academic year in which they turn five (0-5).

From September 2008 the Foundation Stage Profile will be renamed the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile but the content should remain the same. Practitioners should use the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Handbook, published in July 2008. All registered early years providers will be required to use the EYFS framework from September 2008 and to complete an EYFS profile for each child at the end of the academic year in which they reach the age of five.

The primary purpose of the EYFS profile is to provide year 1 teachers and parents with reliable and accurate information about each child's level of development as they reach the end of the EYFS. This will enable the teacher to plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will meet all children's needs, to support their continued achievement more fully.

Each child's development should be recorded against 13 assessment scales, based on the early learning goals and divided between the six areas of learning and development. Judgements against these scales should be made from observation of consistent and independent behaviour, predominantly from children's self-initiated activities. The 13 assessment scales can be found on page 24 of the EYFSP handbook. A summary listing of all scale points can be found on the separate Assessment scales reference sheet poster.

Several documents and web-based resources have been created to assist practitioners in formulating EYFS profiles. These tools can be found at http://www.naa.org.uk/eyfsp and they are at their most effective when they are used together in an integrated manner and we would urge users to do so.