Our Educational Programmes

Our educational programmes inspired by Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) outline the prime and specific areas of learning and development for children from birth to age five. These programmes are designed to guide early years practitioners in supporting children’s learning in a holistic manner.

The EYFS educational programmes are divided into seven key areas of learning, which are further categorized into three prime areas and four specific areas.

1. Prime Areas of Learning

The prime areas are fundamental and work together to support development in all other areas. These are particularly important for building a foundation for children’s learning as they grow.

• Communication and Language:
  • Focus: Developing listening, speaking, and understanding skills.
  • Activities: Engaging in conversations, storytelling, singing songs, and rhymes to encourage language development.
• Physical Development:
  • Focus: Enhancing physical control, movement, and coordination.
  • Activities: Providing opportunities for active play, fine motor skills development (e.g., using tools like pencils or scissors), and teaching about health and self-care (e.g., hygiene and healthy eating).
• Personal, Social, and Emotional Development:
  • Focus: Building self-confidence, managing feelings, and establishing positive relationships.
  • Activities: Encouraging children to play cooperatively, share, take turns, and understand their own and others’ emotions.

2. Specific Areas of Learning

The specific areas provide children with a more focused framework for learning as they grow older, building on the knowledge and skills developed in the prime areas.

• Literacy:
  • Focus: Developing early reading and writing skills.
  • Activities: Phonics instruction, story time, recognizing letters and words, and writing activities like drawing and forming letters.
• Mathematics:
  • Focus: Understanding numbers, counting, simple addition and subtraction, as well as shapes, spaces, and measures.
  • Activities: Counting games, puzzles, sorting activities, and exploring patterns and sequences.
• Understanding the World:
  • Focus: Exploring the environment, people, technology, and communities.
  • Activities: Investigating nature, discussing different cultures, using simple technology like computers or tablets, and exploring everyday objects and their functions.
• Expressive Arts and Design:
  • Focus: Encouraging creativity through various forms of expression.
  • Activities: Art projects, music and dance, role play, and storytelling, which help children to express their thoughts and feelings creatively.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

Alongside these seven areas, the EYFS framework emphasizes Characteristics of Effective Learning, which underpin the ways in which children engage with their learning environment:

• Playing and Exploring: Children investigate and experience things and ‘have a go.’
• Active Learning: Children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and they enjoy achievements.
• Creating and Thinking Critically: Children have their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

Implementation in Practice

In practice, we create a rich and varied environment that promotes learning across these areas. Our Practitioners plan activities and experiences that are based on children’s interests and developmental needs, ensuring that each child can progress through the different stages of learning.

The educational programmes within the EYFS are designed to be flexible, allowing our early years educators to tailor their approach to meet the needs of individual children while ensuring a broad and balanced curriculum. This approach prepares children for the more structured learning they will encounter as they transition into primary education.