Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.
The curriculum within the Early Years Foundation Stage is planned around four main themes:
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A Unique Child
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Positive Relationships |
Enabling Environments |
Learning and Development |
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Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and Self-assured.
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Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person |
The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning |
Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development are equally important and inter-connected |
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Three Prime Areas |
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
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Communication & Language
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Physical Development
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Four Specific Areas |
Literacy |
Mathematics |
Understanding the World |
Expressive Arts & Design |
The seven areas of Learning and Development are further divided into strands, and children’s progression is recorded in order to support and encourage them throughout their journey.
Your child's learning is recorded using an online learning journal, called Tapestry.
The aim of this Learning Journey is to:
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Celebrate children’s achievements. |
Serve as a reminder of the wonderful experiences. |
Monitor the skills that children are developing. |
Enable staff to plan effectively in order to meet children’s learning needs. |
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Show children’s progression. |
Record children’s viewpoints. |
Highlight the discoveries children make. |
Support children when they are challenged. |
Parents have a log in to Tapestry which enables them to view their own child's learning journey, comment on observations made at school and add learning experiences from their child's home environment.
Towards the end of your child's year in reception, some materials from this learning journey may be used to support the completion of an EYFS Profile.
An EYFS Profile is a legal document that enables Year 1 teachers to plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will continue to meet all children’s needs after they leave the Foundation Stage.
At Thaxted Primary School, we use the structure of the profile to give you a report of your child's current level of attainment in the Summer Term.
For more detailed information on your child's learning in the EYFS, please look at the Curriculum Leaflet on your child's class page, found in our 'Children' section.