EYFS

ESPS follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework 2014 (updated in 2017), which sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. The EYFS Framework sets out legal welfare requirements, 7 areas of learning and development which guide a provider’s planning of your child’s play and activities, assessments of your child’s progress and expected levels or Early Learning Goals that your child should reach at age 5. You can find out about the quality of your child’s setting and how they are performing in relation to the EYFS Framework via Ofsted, the Government’s official inspection body for early years (see our Ofsted page).

There are 7 areas of learning and development in the EYFS Framework, 3 prime areas which children should mostly develop first and 4 specific areas which develop as they grow:

3 prime areas

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

4 specific areas

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

At the heart of the EYFS Framework is the principle that young children need to play in order to have fun, make friends and begin to learn about and understand the world around them. The play-based EYFS Framework acknowledges that every child is unique and that they learn and develop at different rates and in different ways.

For more information on the EYFS Framework you can download the document “Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage” from the Government’s website. A very helpful parent’s guide to the expected levels in the EYFS Framework at different ages called “What to expect, when?“can be downloaded from the Action for Children website.