EYFS

What is the EYFS?
The EYFS is the statutory Early Years curriculum. This is mandatory for all schools, settings and childminders to follow from birth up to the end of reception. The EYFS sets out our legal obligations regarding things like adult: child ratios, suitable people, safeguarding and welfare, staff qualifications, and learning and development.

What is changing?
Ofsted and the Department for Education have reviewed and revised how we and other early years settings adopt the Early Years curriculum. They have made it clearer and easier to use and have said that we no longer need to create lengthy written reports about each child. Instead, we need to demonstrate our understanding of each child through conversations with Ofsted and interactions observed with each child. They have realised that we need to focus on the things that matter most – spending more time with the children to help them develop; in turn this will reduce the amount of paperwork and pressure put on the staff.
More details can be found here at Early Year Foundation Stage Reforms:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-early-years-foundation-stage-eyfs-framework/changes-to-the-early-years-foundation-stage-eyfs-framework

What does this mean for children and families in our nurseries?
This is a positive change for the children and teams at our nurseries. Instead of creating lengthy, time-consuming observations and reports that can take us away from our children, we can focus on what is important and what we love – interacting and spending time with them.
This means we will have more time sparking their curiosity and helping them to meet their next steps in learning and development. Our role is to get to know each child and find out what they know and can do. This is something we know our early years educators are skilled at and are doing already every day. The difference now is that they do not need to evidence this in a paper trail.
The key learning opportunities where your child has demonstrated development and progress are documented using termly learning journeys and shared through our Parentzone app. At the end of each term we will then have a Parent Partnership meeting to discuss your child’s progression and potential next steps for the following term.

How can parents and carers help with their child’s learning?
We are passionate about creating meaningful parent partnerships and we want to create a holistic approach to each child’s learning. To help us understand and get to know each child better, we ask parents and carers to regularly share their child’s experiences or interests with us via the app.
It could be anything, from a first swimming lesson, a trip out to the seaside or playing in the garden and catching bugs. We then use these experiences to create activities and learning opportunities that will engage and excite each child.