Early Years Changes – September 2021

At Emneth Nursery school, we embrace changes that are going to have a positive impact on the children’s learning and education. As you may already be aware, the DFE have introduced a new EYFS framework, commencing September 2021. This has given us an opportunity to create our own curriculum (You will be able to see this on our website).

What Is the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework?

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework is a government document that all schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers in England must follow. It sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. The standards ensure your child will learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.

Below are some of the key points from the new EYFS reforms that include relevant changes for Nursery:

• Early Years staff will be spending less time on large amounts of written observations and assessments for evidence collection. This means they can spend more time supporting and engaging with the children and their learning and development needs.

• Pupils will no longer be assessed against statements from an age band categories. Instead, staff will use their experience and knowledge to monitor if a child’s learning and development is on track for their age.

• There is an emphasis on improving pupil’s language and vocabulary through increasing opportunities for conversations, reading of a wide range of books and holding discussions around activities in other areas of learning.

• Literacy and numeracy skills focused on in the EYFS have been adapted to better match up with the National Curriculum that starts in year 1.

• Safeguarding and welfare of pupils is still of upmost priority, with the added mention of teaching pupils about the importance of good oral health and how to keep teeth clean and healthy.

How Will I Know How My Child Is Doing?

Instead of having a key person meeting each term, every 6 months your child’s key person will complete a ‘snapshot’ which will detail your child’s interests, what they have been learning and what they plan to do to move their learning on. You will be involved in this process through either a phone call or a meeting with the key person. We will assess your child against Opal developmental milestones and we will indicate whether your child has ‘met’ them or is ‘working towards’ them. The ‘snapshot’ will then be reviewed after two months so that you know what progress they have made.

We will continue to use Tapestry so that you can see what they have been learning and we would still appreciate your contributions on there too.

Our Curriculum

Here at Emneth we benefit from having our own personalised curriculum, built upon strong Early Years principles that we hold in high esteem. Our curriculum is designed to focus upon the idea of building life long skills in children and giving them what they need to go on to be confident learners in the future. Our approach is play based and child centred where learning is seamless, fun and exciting. Our staff skillfully play alongside the children to develop their thinking and knowledge and then plan subsequent experiences that will deepen their understanding. We adopt principles heavily influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach, with creativity at the forefront of our work. The learning environment is set up to create 'beautiful' experiences for children that allow them to explore, reflect and question. The adults work together as co-learners developing thoughts and ideas through projects led by children, guided by adults. Outdoors we develop Forest Schools practice where children are given responsibility to develop new skills and learn how to take managed risks. Indoors and outdoors are given equal learning value as we recognise children learn best in many different ways.