Department for Education (DfE)
Early Years Foundation Stage
EYFS principles:
• Every Child Is Unique
• Positive Relationships
• Enabling Environment with Teaching and Support from Adults
• Importance of Learning and Development
Published by the DfE, the Early Years Foundation Stage sets the standards for learning, development, care, safeguarding and welfare of children from birth to five in Early Years childcare settings within the U.K. For support and further information about the EYFS curriculum visit https://foundationyears.org.uk/.
At the Rocking Horse Montessori Nursery, we follow the EYFS through a Montessori and Reggio Emilia inspired approach.
Prime Areas
Communication and Language
Children`s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development.
The number and quality of interactions they have with adult and peers contributes enormously to their cognitive development.
At the Rocking Horse Montessori Nursery we pay special attention to communication from a very early age. Our staff are trained how to best promote and stimulate early communication and babies’ cognitive development.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and it is fundamental to their cognitive development.
The qualities described by the EYFS for this include: Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults, managing emotions, positive sense of self, confidence, attention and persistence.
We make sure that children will naturally develop these characteristics in our setting, thanks to teachers’ awareness and the enabling environment.
Physical Development
Gross and fine motor skills experiences, starting with explorations and development of a child strength, coordination, balance, spatial awareness and agility.
Last but not least – hand-eye coordination which is later linked to early literacy enabling children to pursue happy, healthy and active lives.
Specific Areas
Literacy
Aiming to develop a life-long love of reading, we work on language comprehension and word reading through talking with children and reading with them; enjoying rhymes, poems and songs together.
Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar words and recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription (spelling and hand writing) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing).
Mathematics
Developing a strong grounding in numbers is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically.
The EYFS curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their ability in counting confidently up to ten and understanding the relationship between numbers, spatial reasoning, exploring shapes, space and measures.
Understanding the World
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of the world and community around them, from butterflies and flowers to members of the society such as people that help us – police officers and nurses for example – to the understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world.
At the Rocking Horse Montessori Nursery we invite families to share their languages, culture, traditions and celebrations with all the children at the nursery, through organising specific learning experiences for the children so that everyone can enjoy the richness of the world that’s around us.
Expressive Art and Design
The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It’s important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore a wide range of media and materials.
The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing understanding, self expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through art.
There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six