Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The EYFS is how the Government and early years professionals descrive the time in your child's life between birth and the age of 5.

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. From when your child is born up until the age of 5, their early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.

Nurseries, pre-schools, reception classes and childminders registeres to deliver the EYFS must follow a legal document called the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

The EYFS is a statutory framework developed by the government that outlines what early years providers must do to ensure children are nurtured safe, and ready for school.

Who it applies to:

It applies to all Ofsted-registered early years providers in England.

Why it's important:

The EYFS promotes high-quality care and education, ensuring that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It also helps to ensure children's "school readiness" and provides them with a broad range of knowledge and skills for future learning.

Areas of Learning:

The EYFS  includes seven areas of learning and development:

• Personal, social, and emotional development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

What does it mean for me as a parent?

Ensuring my child's safety

Much thought has been given to making sure that your child is as safe as possible. Within the EYFS there is a set of welfare standards that everyone must follow. These include the numbers of staff required in a nursery, how many children a childminder can look after, and things like administering medicines and carrying out risk assessments.

Quality

You can find out about the quality of your child's nursery and other early years providers in relation to the EYFS Framework by checking what the Government's official inspection body for early years, Ofsted, has to say about it. You can find this information HERE.