Curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old. This 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.

The EYFS Framework exists to support all professionals working in early years to help your child, and was developed with a number of early years experts and parents. In 2019, the Framework was revised to make it clearer and easier to use, with more focus on the things that matter most. This new Framework also has a greater emphasis on your role in helping your child develop.

The EYFS Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development. Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through seven areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the three prime areas first. These are:

Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

The Keyworker approach

Here at Alban Pre-School we use the keyworker approach, this is a method of care in which each child is assigned an educator who will act as their 'go to' person. The practitioner responsibilities are that they help the child feel safe and secure, and are responsible for the vast majority of observations on that child. The role is important for both child and parent and it is an approach set out in the EYFS. The key person will respond to children’s needs and help them settle into a new environment, communication is paramount between parent and key person as these discussions hold important information about the child.