EYFS and Curriculum
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
The EYFS is a government document which describes what adults must do to help young children learn and develop when caring for them in a professional capacity. Since September 2021, a revised version of the EYFS has been implemented which involves some significant changes, particularly around the structure of learning and development.
As part of these changes, the ‘Development Matters’ document, which is essentially our curriculum guide, has also been changed. Development Matters was previously used as a checklist of objectives which children within tight age bands were measured against. The revised document is much broader and does not have any checklists of specific objectives. It is instead to be sued as a general guide for the sort of things a child might be doing up to the age of 3, then 5, and then in Reception.
As a result of these changes, parents will see less focus on our building an evidence base or assessing specific objectives. Tapestry is now used as a general communication tool and will not assign next steps to be met or generate progress reports against a generic standard. Instead, the focus is firmly on the needs of the individual children, and will allow our staff to use their professional judgement to decide how best to move each child’s learning on.
The document below is a very useful guide for parents and carers and was created by the same team who wrote the new Development Matters. Also below is an internal training video which we produced to introduce these changes to our staff - it is a bit dry, but if parents are interested please feel free to watch this video.
The EYFS is a government document which describes what adults must do to help young children learn and develop when caring for them in a professional capacity. Since September 2021, a revised version of the EYFS has been implemented which involves some significant changes, particularly around the structure of learning and development.
As part of these changes, the ‘Development Matters’ document, which is essentially our curriculum guide, has also been changed. Development Matters was previously used as a checklist of objectives which children within tight age bands were measured against. The revised document is much broader and does not have any checklists of specific objectives. It is instead to be sued as a general guide for the sort of things a child might be doing up to the age of 3, then 5, and then in Reception.
As a result of these changes, parents will see less focus on our building an evidence base or assessing specific objectives. Tapestry is now used as a general communication tool and will not assign next steps to be met or generate progress reports against a generic standard. Instead, the focus is firmly on the needs of the individual children, and will allow our staff to use their professional judgement to decide how best to move each child’s learning on.
The document below is a very useful guide for parents and carers and was created by the same team who wrote the new Development Matters. Also below is an internal training video which we produced to introduce these changes to our staff - it is a bit dry, but if parents are interested please feel free to watch this video.
| What to expect in the EYFS |