1. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the stage of education for children from birth to the end of the Reception year.
It is based on the recognition that children learn best through play and active learning.
This very important stage helps your child get ready for school, preparing them for future learning and success. Early years experiences should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support individual development, care and learning needs.

2. EYFS is based around 4 Themes and Guiding Principles
•Unique child: every child is a competent learner who can be resilient, confident and capable.
•Positive relationships: children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and carers.
•Enabling environments: the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending the children’s development and learning.
•Learning and development: children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

3. The 7 Areas of Learning & Development
3 Prime Areas:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
Communication and Language.
Physical Development.
4 Specific Areas
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts & Design

4. Characteristics of Effective Teaching & Learning
Playing and exploring – giving children opportunities to play freely, to investigate and experience things, and to support their learning through implicit and explicit challenges.
Active learning – allowing children to show engagement, concentration and resilience. To show a ‘can do’ attitude.
Creating and thinking critically – allowing children to have opportunities to think, puzzle and work things out on their own and with others.

5. Why Should Children Play?
Through play, in a secure environment with effective adult support, children can:
Develop relationships, confidence & self-esteem
Explore, develop & represent learning experiences that help them make sense of the world
Practise & build up ideas, concepts & skills
Learn how to control impulses & understand the need for rules
Be alongside others or co-operate as they talk or rehearse their feelings
Take risks &make mistakes without fear of failure
Think creatively & imaginatively
Communicate with others as they investigate or solve problems
Express fears or relive anxious experiences in controlled & safe situations
Explore new & familiar situations

6. Personal, Social and Emotional Development In this area of learning, the Early Learning Goals establish expectations for:
Self-confidence and Self –awareness
Managing feelings & behaviour
Making relationships

7. Communication and Language The Early Learning Goals in this area establish expectations in:
Listening & attention
Understanding
Speaking

8. Physical Development The Early Learning Goals cover:
Moving & handling
Health and self-care

9. Literacy The Early Learning Goals in this area establish expectations in:
Reading
Writing

10. Our Phonics Programme – Read Write Inc (by Ruth Miskin)
Introduced to sounds (phonemes) & the corresponding letters (graphemes) using simple picture prompts – introduced slowly at first.
Please do not use letter names at this early stage
SAY the sound. These first sounds should all be stretched slightly. Try to avoid saying ‘uh’ after each one:
m- mmmmmountain (keep lips pressed together)
s - sssssssnake (keep teeth together & hiss – unvoiced)
n- nnnnnnet (keep tongue behind teeth)
f -ffflower (keep teeth on bottom lip & force air out sharply unvoiced)
READ the sound
- copy Maisie & the mountains onto the board / write ‘m’ on the board.
- show the Speed Sounds card (Picture side) & say mountain.
- show the letter side & say ‘mmmmmm’
WRITE ‘m’ – Air-write/ Handwrite, saying Maisie, mountain, mountain
Air-write / Soundwrite, mmmmm
We use pure sounds so that the children will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily. A character called Fred does this beautifully! – when we say words in sounds we call it ‘Fred Talk’- he knows that sounds must be very pure & distinct so children can sound-blend.
eg. d-o-g, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, c-l-a-p
We use ‘My-turn-your-turn’ to show the children what to do & get them to copy.
We ensure they always achieve success with lots of PRAISE – BRILLIANT!

11. Developing Pencil Control for Mark-Making
Learning to write is a complex development.
Requires:
- the ability to use muscles in the hand in order to grasp, release & control an object;
- the ability to use 2 hands together;
- co-ordination of eye & hand movement;
- development of perception & exposure to sensory & motor experience.
Early scribblings need to be nurtured & guided
Little children’s scribblings & drawings are their way of communicating & showing observation of their world.
Encourage, praise & celebrate their achievements.
The developing stages of pre-writing are:
Lines & dots. Often at this stage the child has no
pre- determined hand
- Ability to imitate directional marks made by others
- Curves & enclosures
- Ability to copy straights & curves made by others
- Ability to link straights & curves to form a symbol.

12. Pencil Grip Development
Pencil grip follows a predictable pattern:
The basic palmar grasp, where the child
wraps all his fingers round the pencil &
moves his whole arm to make marks.
The digital finger grasp, where the hand
is above the pencil & the child uses the
whole arm to manipulate it.
The tripod grasp, with fingers placed
near the tip of the pencil with the
thumb opposing the fingers, &
movement controlled by the fingers.

13. Activities to encourage pencil grip & rotation
Activities to encourage pencil grip & rotation. (developing sensory perception and control)
Playdough-pinching, squeezing with thumb & forefinger. ‘Who can make the longest snake? ’
Threading – beads, pasta, straws. ‘Let’s all make a necklace…..’
Picking up small objects – use tweezers & pipettes / eye droppers. ‘How many peas can you put in this pot?’
Finger Rhymes – stretching, curling fingers.
Waterplay – using spray toys & spray bottles.
Craft Activities –Use glue sticks to make a collage with lots of fine papers & decorate it with sequins. Mixing paints.
Icing cakes – using a plastic dispenser to push & squeeze out the icing.
Strengthening activities – swinging from the climbing frame or grasping to climb & crawl.
Activities to develop correct rotation: stirring cake mixture, encourage a 2-handed operation – 1 to hold the bowl & 1 to stir. Encourage an anticlockwise rotation

14. Mark-making & Sensory Play
Mark-making goes beyond pencil & paper & includes a range of textures & media:
Paint using an easel & large brushes / Paint the playground with water
Draw shapes in the air with a wand
Dance with a ribbon in writing hand
Chalk on boards or dark coloured sugar paper
Draw in sand / shaving foam & cornflour gloop
Finger paint on the table
Make rubbings on rough surfaces
Tactile experiences with natural materials e.g. wood, mud, clay, suede, hessian, fur.

15. Mathematics The Early Learning Goals in this area establish expectations in:
Numbers
2. Shape, Space and Measures

16. What is early years Mathematics about?
Solving problems, thinking, reasoning
and talking that may involve:
counting
recognising & comparing numbers and quantities
noticing patterns and relationships
seeing similarities and differences
becoming aware of size, weight,
distance, time, shape, space, position,
capacity, money 16

17. Understanding the World The Early Learning Goals in this area relate to:
People and Communities
The World
Technology

18. Expressive Arts & Design The early Learning Goals in this area relate to:
Exploring & using media & materials
Being imaginative

19. FOREST SCHOOL
‘Forest school is an exciting all round experience for young children. Developed in Scandinavia, the programme has proved to be effective in building confidence and self-esteem. The forest school, a secure area of woodland, acts as an outdoor classroom where children can explore, investigate and discover the natural environment. Challenging woodland activities capture their sense of fun and adventure.’

21. Observation, Assessment & Planning
Observation, assessment & planning all support your children’s development & learning. Our planning starts with observing the children in order to understand & consider their current interests, development & learning -
We watch the children, listen to them & take note of what we see & hear.
We assess their progress by analysing our observations & deciding what they tell us. We also, most importantly, need to find out about their care & learning needs from you – from all of this we can identify individual requirements, interests, current development & learning.
Thus our planning is a whole-staff exercise on the basis of what we have found out from our own observations & assessments, as well as information from you.
Useful Publication: ‘What to expect, When?’
March 2015

22. ‘WOW’Moments
In order to meet your child’s needs and interests in the most effective way, we need you to ‘get involved!’
You will always be the most important influence in your child’s life and because of this we would like you to share your child’s interests and successes with us.
Use ‘speech bubbles’ to record and comment on anything significant your child says or does – we call this a ‘WOW’ moment.
‘WOW’ moments will be added to your child’s Learning Journey books.
WOW………