EYFS SPECIAL - BLOG POST.

Hello Everyone.

This week we have been sending out our end of term reports and have spoken to many of you about your child's progress and development.

Mrs Franks and the team at The Acorns have had lots of questions regarding the EYFS and how we track our children's progress.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five.

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that will enable them to reach their full potential.

Children develop extremely quickly in the early years of their lives and a child’s experiences between 0-5 can have a major impact on their future life chances.

The EYFS sets the standards that Early Years providers must meet to ensure that children are kept safe, healthy and develop well.

It promotes teaching and learning to give children a broad range of knowledge and skills that provide a solid foundation for future learning through school and life.

It informs our intentions and our learning curriculum.

There are 7 areas of learning and development.

All of the areas of learning are important and inter-connected.

PRIME AREAS

·        Personal, Social and Emotional Development

·        Communication and Language

·        Physical Development

SPECIFIC AREAS

·        Literacy

·        Mathematics

·        Understanding the World

·        Expressive Arts and Design

There are 2 (Non – Statutory) guidance documents available for teachers to use.

• Birth to Five Matters.

• Development Matters.

At The Acorns we consider both documents but we prefer to use Birth to Five Matters when tracking each child's unique learning journey.

You may notice some letters and numbers on your child's report and we have had lots of questions about these.

There are 6 ranges within the guidance and we aim for children to reach range 6 by the end of Reception Class at primary school and to meet the Early Learning Goals (ELGs)

We use the letters below to track where a child is working within the given range.

E - Emerging into range

W - Working within range

S - Secure in the range and working towards moving forwards.

Eg.

4E - Your child is emerging into stage 4.

When referring to the guidance for the Areas of Learning and Development, it is important to start with what is observed and understood about each individual child.

When we ask you at the beginning of each term to complete paperwork, the information you provide us with also informs our planning for your child's individual learning plan. This allows us to form a more holistic view of each child.

We can identify a range that most closely describes the child’s development and learning and then plan to support their continued progress.

The guidance can also help to identify when children may need additional support.

We track our children every term, usually in the second half of the term.

Here is an example of how we track each child throughout their play and experiences at The Acorns.

Imagine a child sat at the table eating a snack surrounded by their friends . They have 2 bread sticks and 2 pieces of apple.

This is what a skilled Early Years Teacher would be looking for ...

Personal, Social and Emotions Development -

Are they engaging with other children around them?

Did they choose who to sit with ?

Did they choose their own snack?

Did they help to prepare snack?

Physical Development -

Is the child using both hands to feed themselves?

Is the child displaying fine motor skills in holding the foods.

How does the child chew?

Are they using their senses to explore their snack?

Does the child have a healthy appetite?

Communication and Language -

Eye contact with teachers and peers?

Is there non verbal or verbal communication present?

New language being introduced?

Literacy -

Can the child name their foods?

Can we talk about where our apples grew and tell stories about how the apples arrived at The Acorns?

Are they holding their breadstick like a pencil and 'drawing' on the table?

Mathematics -

Can the child count their food?

Do they recognise a pattern - 2 breadsticks and 2 apples?

Is the breadstick long or short - are they using mathematical language?

Can the child group the items?

Understanding the world -

Does the child enjoys a familiar routine?

Have they washed hands before snack, learning about germs and the need for good hygiene.

Are they learning and able to make links about apples growing on trees in the acorns garden?

Do they understand about making healthy food choices?

Expressive Arts and Design -

Is the child is expressing themselves through actions and sounds?

They are experiencing the colour, form and texture of their foods.

Are they exploring the different textures from the wet sticky sweet apple to the dry crunchy breadstick.

Are they pretending their breadstick is something else? Perhaps a magic wand or sword - that's pretty standard here at The Acorns.

Our observations then form our judgements of which range the child may be working within.

We observe the children everyday - during free play, adult supported activities, circle times, garden times & meal times.

The brain of an Early Years Teacher never stops buzzing !

I hope that this has helped and I am happy to answer any questions you might have about the EYFS or Birth to Five Matters.

If you would like more posts like this then please do let me know.

Christina Franks.