EYFS Key Information

Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage January 2024

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.

The EYFS seeks to provide:

• Quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind.
• A secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly.
• Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers.
• Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

The EYFS specifies requirements for learning and development and for safeguarding children and promoting their welfare.

The learning and development requirements cover:

• The areas of learning and development which must shape activities and experiences (educational programmes) for children in all early years settings.
• The Early Learning Goals that providers must help children work towards (the knowledge, skills and understanding children should have at the end of the academic year in which they turn five).
• The assessment arrangements for measuring progress (and requirements for reporting to parents and/or carers) 5.
• The safeguarding and welfare requirements cover the steps that providers must take to keep children safe and promote their welfare.

 

What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage : a guide for parents

It is vital to establish and build links between home and school and to work in partnership with families in order for children’s learning to be maximised. Parents are a source of rich information and have unique knowledge about their children’s learning and well-being and the EYFS team have expert and wide-ranging knowledge about children’s learning and development.

This guide is for parents and carers of children from birth to five years old. It will help you find out more about your child’s learning and development in the EYFS.

 

Development Matters Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS

Children learn and develop more from birth to five years old than at any other time in their lives. When we give every child the best start in their early years, we give them what they need today. We also set them up with every chance of success tomorrow.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published Development Matters new non-statutory curriculum guidance which supports the delivery of the revised early years foundation stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework.

The guidance sets out pathways of children’s development in broad ages and stages but recognises the actual learning of young children is not so neat and orderly. The document encourages early years practitioners to use their knowledge to facilitate holistic learning and development and help children make progress and improve outcomes for all children, especially disadvantaged children.