The early years foundation stage (EYFS) comes into force in September 2008 and will establish a framework for providing learning, development and care for children from birth to five. But what is the EYFS, how will it affect provision and what support and information is available? The knowledge explains.
So what is the early years foundation stage?
The EYFS sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth until the end of the reception year of primary school. It builds upon, and will replace, the existing frameworks: Birth to Three Matters, the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, and the National Standards for Daycare and Childminding. The guidance and legal requirements in the EYFS will help to ensure that children receive a high quality experience regardless of the type of setting they attend.
Who is involved?
All childcare providers, for children from birth to five, across maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors will have to provide the EYFS. This includes day nurseries, childminders, playgroups, children’s centres, pre-schools and maintained and independent schools
Between now and September 2008, local authority early years advisers will ensure all early years providers are aware of the EYFS and have the support to help them implement it. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) are reworking their inspection arrangements to tie in with the new EYFS. Trainers and those trainees in the early years sector also need to familiarise themselves with the EYFS and training institutions must ensure they incorporate the EYFS principles in their suite of courses.
Including all children
The EYFS is for all children in settings outside their home. It emphasises the right of children and their families to be included and welcomed in all settings and requires practitioners to promote positive attitudes to diversity and difference and to meet the individual needs of all children whatever their background, needs or abilities. This is reflected in the four principles that sit at the heart of the EYFS:
- A unique child - every child is a competent learner from birth, who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
- Positive relations - 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.
All early years workers should put these principles into practice whether they work from their homes as a childminder or in a nursery, playgroup, school or pre-school. The way they do this will vary according to the age of the child and their stage of development.
The EYFS provides guidance on different ages and stages, on what practitioners might observe children doing, and gives examples of effective practice and appropriate planning and resourcing at each stage.
How will things change?
Because the EYFS draws existing guidance together, it should not mean huge changes for many children, parents or practitioners. It gives all settings the opportunity to review and improve practice. Early years practitioners and settings whose work with children is already guided by the four EYFS principles, shouldn’t experience much change when the new framework is introduced; where children are already achieving well, the requirements will only confirm and build on what is in place.
The EYFS will ensure a high-quality standard of care for all children, regardless of background and circumstances. It should ease transitions within and between settings and between settings and primary schools.
EYFS units of assessment
The Children’s Workforce Development Council, working with the Primary National Strategy, has developed three units of assessment that form the level 3 certificate in early years foundation stage practice. Following a successful consultation, the units have been included in the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s new qualifications and credit framework (QCF), which follows a system of credit accumulation and transfer.
It’s estimated that each unit takes 60 hours to complete and is worth 6 credits on the QCF, giving the certificate a total of 18 transferable credits; it will be ready for delivery in centres from September 2007. The certificate is designed to support the early years workforce in developing and demonstrating the skills and knowledge required to implement the early years foundation stage. It will build on practitioners’ existing learning and experience and the good practice that is taking place in early years settings. The three units cover:
- context and principles for the early years foundation stage
- the six areas of learning and development, and
- children’s welfare from birth to 5 years.
Further help and information
Local authorities have been leading dissemination of the EYFS pack. All childcare providers, including higher and further education institutions, offering courses in the early years sector should have received a copy. If you haven’t, or would like more copies to cater for new training recruits starting this September, you can order copies from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) publications on 0845 6022260 or email dfes@prolog.uk.com.
The early years foundation stage is available online from the DCSF standards site.
Information is also available from Teachernet including a briefing pack specifically aimed at trainers in further and higher education. This can be found in the ‘EYFS briefing pack for local authorities’ section.
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