Information about the Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is not a curriculum; it is a statutory framework for all settings who care for children from birth to 5 years.  The main focus is to ensure children learn through play, focusing on their interests, considering their needs and their stages of development.  The EYFS has four themes which are:

A Unique Child
“Ever child is a competent learner from birth, who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured”.

Positive Relationships
“Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person”.

Enabling Environments
The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning”

Learning and Development
“Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development are equally important and inter-connected”.

The six areas of learning covered by the early learning goals are:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication, Language and Literacy
- Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Physical Development
- Creative Development

(Statement from Department for Education and Skills- EYFS)
“None of these areas of Learning and Development can be delivered in isolation from others. They are equally important and depend on each other to support a rounded approach to child development”.        
                                        
In each room the experiences offered are appropriate to the child’s age and include both indoor and outdoor activities. Children are free to play as part of a group or on their own. This helps them to develop self confidence and social interaction. Children learn most effectively when they are enjoying themselves and having fun, this is why we promote learning through play.
At Gingerbread House, the rooms, equipment, resources and outdoor play facilities ensure that the children have constant access to a wide variety of activities and areas that support their development and learning.
The learning is planned, delivered and evaluated to ensure that the children receive broad based experiences and knowledge to help them get ready for the transition from nursery/pre-school to primary school. The children are observed and assessed to ensure that the learning planned builds on the skills and knowledge that each child already possesses.

Key Person System
Each child has a key person in the room. The role of a key person is to build a strong relationship with child and parents/carers.  The key person will ensure the child is happy and stimulated throughout the day, provide feedback to parents verbally and formally. Each child has a profile in nursery. The child’s key person will collect information for the profile such as photographs, observations, pictures and the child’s work. The aim of the profile is to record their learning journey whilst at nursery. This information can then be passed to the child’s school.