Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a crucial framework that underpins the education and care of young children in England, from birth all the way up to the age of five. It’s essentially a set of guidelines that all childcare providers, preschools, nurseries, and even school reception classes must adhere to. But what exactly is the EYFS, and why is it so important for a child’s learning and development?

The EYFS
Think of the EYFS as a roadmap that ensures all young children receive high-quality care and education during their most formative years. It emphasizes a play-based approach to learning, recognizing that children learn best through exploration, interaction, and hands-on activities. The EYFS also outlines seven key areas of learning and development that early year’s providers must focus on:
  • Communication and Language: This involves developing children’s listening, speaking, and social communication skills.
  • Physical Development: This area focuses on promoting healthy growth and development of motor skills.
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Here, the emphasis is on helping children develop a strong sense of self, build positive relationships, and manage their emotions.
  • Literacy: This includes fostering a love for books, reading, and writing.
  • Mathematics: The EYFS encourages young children to explore numbers, shapes, and patterns in a fun and engaging way.
  • Understanding the World: This area helps children learn about themselves, their families, and the world around them.
  • Expressive Arts and Design: This includes providing opportunities for children to express themselves creatively through music, art, and movement.

Why the EYFS Matters
The EYFS plays a vital role in shaping a child’s future by:

  • Providing a Strong Foundation: The EYFS ensures a consistent and high-quality learning experience for all children, regardless of background. This creates a strong foundation for future academic success and lifelong learning.
  • Nurturing All Aspects of Development: The EYFS goes beyond just academics. It recognizes the importance of social, emotional, and physical development, ensuring well-rounded growth for young children.
  • Promoting Play-Based Learning: The EYFS emphasizes the importance of play in early childhood education. Through play, children explore concepts, develop problem-solving skills, and learn to interact with others.
  • Building Partnerships: The EYFS encourages strong partnerships between early years providers and parents. This collaborative approach ensures children receive consistent support throughout their development.

By following the EYFS framework, Little Rainbow Nursery creates a nurturing and stimulating environment where young children can thrive and learn.
We encourage parents to actively support their child’s learning at nursery. All the fun activities that you do with your child at home are important in supporting their learning and development and have a really long-lasting effect on your child’s learning as they progress through school. We appreciate parental feedback on the activities we do with the children and like to hear about their interests and development at home.
If you would like further information, you can find the Early Years Foundation Stage which includes the early learning goals at:
Early years foundation stage – GOV.UK

Our Curriculum:
The first five years of your child’s life are important, informative years and it is our aim to provide a caring, stimulating, loving, family atmosphere while they are with us. At Little Rainbow Nursery we have our own established curriculum for each of the three rooms. Our curriculum strives to develop your children to become the best that they can be with the fundamental building blocks to support their growth.
Little Rainbow Nursery is registered in accordance with OFSTED, Development Matters, and the Early Years Foundation Stage, and bases its curriculum on these frameworks. The framework helps practitioners support the development and learning of every child and support for their families. We strive to fulfil the 7 Characteristics of Learning with our curriculum:

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

These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. The professionals teaching and supporting your child will make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. This is a like a curriculum in primary and secondary schools, but it’s suitable for very young children, and it’s designed to be flexible so that staff can follow your child’s unique needs and interests.
The nursery plans experiences tailored to every child’s individual, needs, stages and interests. This is done through observations and assessments. We value the parent as the child’s first educator and build a partnership to ensure that every child is happy, healthy, safe and successful. We encourage parents to comment on regular updates, provide their own insights into what you may want us to focus on for your children’s next steps, as well as post your own uploads to your child’s learning journal, working in partnership with us.