Early Years Foundation Stage

EYFS sets standards for all registered childcare providers to follow in the learning, development and care of the under 5s. It gives parents the reassurance that, whatever type of childcare they choose - be it childminder, nursery or nursery school, the provider will be working to the same standards of care and education.

It divides a child's development into 7 areas of learning:

• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social and emotional development
• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design

We work to these by:

• Observing - looking at, listening to and noting what a child does
• Assessing what it tells us about their level of development
• planning what activities or opportunities to provide to assist the next step in their development, taking account of what kind of things we know are most likely to appeal to them.

And we do all this alongside what we believe is the important principle of learning through play.
At it's simplest, we plan activities around the individual child, based on their particular development needs and the types of play we can see they enjoy most. In addition we give children time for 'free play' when they choose their own activities using the large range of resources we have - or just their own imagination.
It's a continuous cycle of Observation, Assessment and Planning

We use the Tapestry on-line journal system for recording and assessing our observations. Parents have secure on-line access to their child's journal so that they can view it whenever they wish.
Three times a year we provide parents with an assessment of what stage of development their child is at. This is just a part of the continuous exchange of information between ourselves and the family.

You can find out more about Tapestry from their web site