Your child's learning journey
The curriculum within the Early Years Foundation Stage is planned around four main themes.
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Unique Child |
Positive Relationships |
Enabling Environments |
Learning and Development |
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Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. |
Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person |
The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning |
Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development are equally important and inter-connected
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There are seven areas of Learning and Development:
- Communication and Language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Maths
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
The seven areas of Learning and Development are further divided into aspects, detailed in the following grid.
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Area of Learning |
Aspect |
Strand |
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Personal, Social and Emotional Development |
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Each statement in the ages and stages are known as ‘Strands’ Each aspect has several strands attached Culminating in an Early Learning Goal for each aspect. The children are assessed against these 17 Early Learning Goals as either Emerging, Expected or Exceeding. |
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Communication and Language |
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Physical Development |
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Literacy |
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Maths |
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Understanding the World |
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Expressive Arts and Design |
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The ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner. These are called Characteristics of Effective Learning.
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Playing and Exploring |
Active Learning |
Creating and Thinking Critically |
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· Playing with what they know
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· Being involved and concentrating |
· Having their own ideas |
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· Finding out and exploring
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· Keeping trying |
· Making links |
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· Being willing to ‘have-a-go’
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· Enjoying achieving what they set out to do |
· Choosing ways to do things |
During the academic year in which your child is 5, some materials from this learning journey may be used to support the completion of an EYFS Profile. The EYFS Profile is a legal document that enables year 1 teachers to plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will continue to meet all children’s needs after they leave the Foundation Stage.
Children will be assessed as working towards the Early Learning Goals, known as emerging, for each of the seventeen strands above; meeting the expected level for each goal or exceeding each goal.
If a child meets or exceeds the Early Learning Goals in the strands contained within Communication and Language; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Physical Development; Literacy and Maths then they will have achieved a ‘good level of development’ - an indicator that they will continue to achieve well throughout their school journey. You will receive a written report at the end of Foundation Stage detailing your child’s achievements in each area as well as a statement about how they learn through the characteristics of learning.