We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage
The EYFS sets the standards that all early years providers must abide by in terms of learning, development and care for all children who attend the provision. It promotes learning and teaching to ensure children are provided with high quality are to help them develop the skills and knowledge they need to secure a strong foundation for future success and through the rest of their education journeys.
The EYFS seeks to provide quality and consistany in all early years settings so that every child is supported to make positive progress. It also seeks to provide a secure foundation for a child's learning by assessing and monitoring development on a regular basis. The EYFS also values the vital need to work in partnership with the child's parents/carers to help to support the child and the family in the early stages of their lives. Finally, the EYFS values equality of opportunity; ensuring every child is included and supported in every aspect of their learning experiences.
Please feel free to acess the EYFS statutory guidance by clicking the button below:
(This new, revised, EYFS framework will come into action in September 2023)
Learning and Development in the EYFS
The EYFS learning and development requirments compromise seven key areas of learning which are listed below. The seven areas of development shape our educational experiences we provide to our children. They are very important and are all interconnected.
The first three areas are called PRIME AREAS which are particulary important for building a foundation for a child's learning. These are Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development.
Communication & Language
Communication and spoken language underpins all the seven areas of learning. Children's interactions from an early age help to assist the foundations of their learning and cognitive development. By providing a language rich environment and close interaction with children, can help to secure these foundations even further. Practitioners at Learning Land strive to communicate and have meaningful conversations with the children on a daily basis to enhance and develop each child's communication and language development. Practitioners read frequently to children, as well as singing rhymes and songs to aid learning experiences which embed the skills children require to thrive. We have role-play areas in each of the rooms to help children engage in conversation and social interaction with their peers to share ideas, make links and use vocabulary to increase their spoken language.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Children's personal, social and emotional development is a crucial aspect to ensuring children are happy, content and have a sense of security in their lives. Underpinning personal, social and emotional development is secure attachments in a child's social world. Each child is assigned a key person which acts as their support network to develop a close bond to help the child feel safe and secure, as well as building other relationships with the other practitioners and their peers. At Learning Land, children are supported to manage their emotions and understand feelings of themselves as well as others. We ensure children are kind, caring and helpful in the daily routine to help support this area of development. Children are given a vast amount of opportunities to develop a sense of themselves, be independent and confident in themselves to achieve their hopes and reach their full potential. The practitioners at Learning Land model behaviours such as healthy eating, independence and interactions with other children in order to develop friendships. Such attributes children learn in this prime area contribute to a secure platform to help carry them through their lives and be positive members of our community.
Physical Development
Engaging in physical activities help children in their holistic development, to lead healthy and happy lives. Gross and fine motor skills develop rapidly in the early stages of a child's life, with sensory exploration, self-awareness, strength and co-ordination. By providing opportunites, both indoors and outdoors, practitioners at Learning Land help children to develop their balance, stength, co-ordination, stability and agility. We have outdoor areas for all rooms which provide an extensive amount of opportunites for children to develop these transferable skills.
The remainder of the seven areas of learning and development are called SPECIFIC AREAS, through which the three prime areas are strengthend and applied. The four specific areas are: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.
Literacy
At Learning Land Nursery, we value the importance of early reading to develop their communication and language skills, which underpin all seven areas. Children's language develops rapily during the early stages of children's lives, which is why we value the importance of conversation and spoken language for children. Children are provided with a range of age-related books in each room to access at their own leisure and writing areas to develop their literacy skills even further.
Mathematics
Developing a strong grounding in numbers helps children to develop mathematical building blocks that they require in all aspects of their future education. Children are supported and encouraged to value numbers, as well as confidently counting to number 10 (age/stage dependent). It is important that our children develop a positive attitude to number and mathematics including shape, space and measure. Children are always encouraged to "have a go", and be confident that making mistakes is part of the learning process and sucessful development.
Understanding the World
At Learning Land Nursery we place a great emphasis on incorporating opprotunities for children to understand the world around them and their community. We strive to ensure that children have a strong sense of belonging and we are all part of a community in the nursery. We frequently take the children on outings such as to the park, library and local areas, as well as inviting guest speakers into the nursery such as firefighters, police and front line key workers. We provide children with the experiences to read and access and broad range of books and materials which help support their cultural awareness and celebrate different cultures such as chinese new year.
Expressive Arts & Design
The development of children's artistic and cultural awareness supports them to be creative and imaginative. It is important that children are provided with opportunities to develop their curiosity and creativity. Children at Learning Land are given a vast amount of creative experiences including shaving foam play, playdough, painting, cutting and sticking, sand, water and lots more. The quality of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial to develop a sense of understanding, self-expression, confidence and vocabulary to develop a strong sense of arts and design.
Charactaristics of Effective Learning
In the way we plan and deliver our curriculum we understand that children develop and learn at different rates, therefore, we adjust our practice as appropriate for our children. The charactaristics of effective learning are embedded in the EYFS to help this. They are as follows:
Playing & Exploring
Children are provided with the experiences to explore and play. They are supported to always have a go!
Active Learning
Children are supported to reach their achievements and concentrate to keep on trying. Making mistakes help children to be great, strong, capeable learners!
Creating and Thinking Critically
Children are constantly encouraged to develop their own ideas and test them out. They are supported to make links and develop strategies for doing things!
Learning and Development Considerations
Our curriculum is driven by the individual needs, abilities and interests of all the children in our care. Our ambitious and creative curriculum is spontaniously designed to achieve this and support the care, development and learning of all children.
At Learning Land, we value the importance of working in close partnership with parents, where frequent conversation takes place regarding the needs and interests of all children. This helps the child's key worker to design a planning framework which is individual to each child that attends the setting.
A Parents Guide to the EYFS
Please take a look at the following guidance to help aid and support yourself with the statutory guidance we follow to monitor and support your child's learning and development.
Click the button below to access.
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