1. Early Years Foundation Stage
Characteristics of effective learning in the EYFS in Bright Stars and Rudston Primary

2. Why do we have the EYFS?
Early Years Foundation Stage 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 child-minder’s deliver the EYFS and must follow a legal document called the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.
The 4 principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage
unique child
positive relationships
enabling environment
children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates

3. What do children learn in the EYFS?
Children will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development in Bright Stars and Reception.
The Prime areas are:
Communication and language;
Physical development; and
Personal, social and emotional development.
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. These are the focus areas for our youngest children through interactions, forest schools, Big physical sessions, outdoors, snack times and daily routines. Play and time to choose our own activities are key.
The 4 specific areas.
Literacy;
Mathematics;
Understanding the world; and
Expressive arts and design.
Increasing opportunities for these aspects are planned for in the experiences, environments and tasks as our children go through EYFS. Playful learning gives children opportunities to develop skills and knowledge in a purposeful and meaningful way.

4. What does effective teaching and learning look like in the EYFS?
OFSTED definition Teaching should not be taken to imply a ‘top down’ or formal way of working. It is a broad term that covers the many different ways in which adults help young children learn. It includes their interactions with children during planned and child-initiated play and activities: communicating and modelling language, showing, explaining, demonstrating, exploring ideas, encouraging, questioning, recalling, providing a narrative for what they are doing, facilitating and setting challenges. It takes account of the equipment adults provide and the attention given to the physical environment, as well as the structure and routines of the day that establish expectations. Integral to teaching is how practitioners assess what children know, understand and can do, as well as taking account of their interests and dispositions to learn (characteristics of effective learning), and how practitioners use this information to plan children’s next steps in learning and monitor their progress.

5. How do children learn? The Importance of Play
Play underpins the EYFS.
It also underpins learning and all aspects of children’s development. Through play, children develop language skills, their emotions and creativity, social and intellectual skills. For most children their play is natural and spontaneous although some children may need extra help from adults. Play takes place indoors and outdoors and it is in these different environments that children explore and discover their immediate world. It is here they practise new ideas and skills, they take risks, show imagination and solve problems on their own or with others. The role that adults have is crucial. Adults provide time and space and appropriate resources. These might include clothes, boxes, buckets, old blankets that will inspire play and fire children’s imaginations. They observe play and join in when invited, watching and listening before intervening. They value play and provide safe but challenging environments that support and extend learning and development
Providing high quality planned experiences for children’s play is an important way for adults in Bright Stars and Reception to support children’s learning that is both enjoyable and challenging. When children play, they are learning at the highest level. Play can extend certain areas of their learning – for example, developing language skills by promoting talk between children or introducing new vocabulary that they use and act out in their play. One example of a planned experience for older children in the EYFS would be setting up a health centre in a classroom. Children enjoy finding out about stethoscopes and Xrays, role playing different jobs, diagnosing a sore throat and even bandaging a pretend broken arm. Such a playful approach to learning builds on children’s interests and responds to their ideas for play and also allows scope for structured activities to teach specific skills and knowledge ~~~

6. How do children learn? Characteristics of Effective learning
How children learn is most important in the EYFS and the opportunities to develop effective strategies is key to giving children the skills to become lifelong learners.
Children in EYFS need time, space and adult support to develop the characteristics of effective learning. These Characteristics of effective learning are part of the observation, assessment and planning for children in EYFS.
Playing and exploring - engagement
Active learning - motivation
Creating and thinking critically
Children need to have:
Opportunities to become involved in activities that interest and intrigue them
Access to rich provision which is available continuously
Space to move, make and do things both indoors and outdoors
Time to practice and apply what they have learned, explore and experiment in more depth, follow through their interests and make decisions, make connections
Opportunities to link their experiences at home with experiences in the setting, valuing each child’s culture and community
Have their thinking made visible, through recording their ideas in words and pictures

7. Playing and exploring - engagement
Finding out and exploring Open ended, hands on practical experiences, multi sensory Playing with what they know Using what the children know in their play helps children to devlop their understanding by combining, refining and exploring their ideas in imaginative ways Being willing to ‘have a go’ Through their play children can seek challenges, develop a ‘can do’ attitude, be open to new experiences and develop positive attitudes that view setbacks not as failures but as learning opportunities In our EYFS you will see opportunities for your children to develop engagement in their own learning in the way the spaces indoors and outdoors are set up for the children and take account of their interests and fascinations.

8. Active learning – motivation
Being involved and concentrating
Giving children opportunity to become engaged and stay focused for extended periods of time, developing an ability to focus and concentrate to learn.
Keeping on trying
Highlights the importance of persisting even when it is challenging or difficult and this builds resilient learners.
Enjoying achieving what they have set out to do
How children feel rewarded when they meet their own goals, which develops self esteem and intrinsic motivation supporting long term success, rather than relying on the approval of others.
We celebrate the children’s engagement, motivation and creativity in photographs, discussions, plenaries and feedback to individuals/pairs/groups. When children persevere, focus, overcome a challenge we discuss and celebrate the importance of these active learning approaches. ‘Ask me why..’ stickers prompt conversations about achievements, sharing news on the boards, displays, website or twitter or positive attention from adults and peers. This is supported by the Art of Being Brilliant approach and steps towards the Rudston Core values.

9. Creating and thinking critically
Having their own ideas Generating new ideas or ways of doing things across all areas of learning. Children are encouraged to be inventive and creative, find new challenges or problems to solve and come up with their own ways to do this. Making links As children develop they become aware of their own thinking, experiences and ideas. Children begin to find meaning in sequences or patterns in cause and effect and begin to understand the intentions of others. They begin to make links in their learning and play. Choosing ways to do things Making choices and decisions of how to do tasks, planning and changing plans if necessary. Children in our setting are given time, space and strategies to develop their thinking in provision scaffolded by the adults or peer group, Talk Partners, Philosophy 4 children discussions, voting on decisions, problem solving approaches and stimulus in the environments. Discussion of ways in which we are good learners or using the Super hero Characteristics of Effective Learning boards promotes these important learning approaches.

10. EYFS Profile – end of EYFS
At the end of Reception class the EYFS Profile summarises and describes children’s attainment at the end of the EYFS. It is based on on-going observation and assessment in the three prime and four specific areas of learning, and the three characteristics of effective learning.
The primary purpose of the EYFS Profile is to provide a reliable, valid and accurate assessment of individual children at the end of the EYFS.
A completed EYFS Profile consists of 20 items of information: the attainment of each child is assessed in relation to each of the 17 Early Learning Goals descriptors, (ELGs) together with a short narrative describing the child’s ways of learning expressed in terms of the three characteristics of learning. For each ELG, practitioners will judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the Reception Year (expected), exceeding this level (exceeding), or not yet reaching this level (emerging). This will be sent home in July for Reception children and parents.
The EYFSP is
 • To inform parents about their child’s development against the ELGs and the characteristics of their learning.
• To support a smooth transition to Key Stage 1 by informing the professional dialogue between EYFS and Key Stage 1 teachers.
• To help Year 1 teachers plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will meet the needs of all children based on how they learn and what they know and can do.
Parents can help to contribute towards the EYFSP by sharing information from home on the ways their child learns – which characteristics of effective learning they show in home situations. Also any interesting learning, experiences that their child is interested in or fascinations their child has. Supporting children with Benny Bear in Bright Stars or Learning Logs in Reception will help contribute to the picture of learning for each individual child.