Castle Academy Astrea Academy Trust
What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5. It is the statutory framework that sets the standards that all early years providers have to work towards, to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.
Children develop more rapidly during the first five years of their lives than at any other time. That is why the foundation years are often referred to as the building blocks for life.
The EYFS is divided into 7 areas of learning and development which guide professionals’ engagement with your child’s play and activities as they learn new skills and knowledge. Regular assessments will tell us about your child’s progress through the EYFS.
Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:
Communication and Language (CL)
Physical Development (PD)
Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
Literacy (L)
Mathematics (M)
Understanding the World (UW)
Expressive Arts and Design (EAD)
How is GLD (Good Level of Development in Children) Defined?
GLD stands for ‘Good Level of Development’. This refers to a summative assessment judgement which is made for each EYFS child at the end of the Reception year. It is a measure of attainment, not progress. Achieving a good level of development will help a child to make a good start in Year 1.
Children are defined as having reached a Good Level of Development at the end of the EYFS if they have achieved the ‘expected‘ level within all Prime Areas and also in the Specific Areas of Literacy and Mathematics.
EYFS also identifies characteristics of effective learning:
Eyfs-characteristics-of-effective-teaching-and-learning-posters-for-parents
If you would like further information, you can find the Statutory Framework for EYFS which became effective on 1st September 2021 by clicking on the image below:
Useful Parent Guides to the EYFS Framework and reforms:
Parents-guide-to-the-statutory-framework-for-the-early-years-foundation-stage
EYFS Parent Guide to Reforms
Parent Partnership
At Castle Academy, we recognise the importance of establishing positive relationships with parents, as highlighted by the EYFS framework. We understand that an effective partnership between school and home will have a positive impact on your child’s learning and development. We endeavour to encourage the regular sharing of information about the children with parents and value the role of parents as children’s primary educators.
Miss Harrop is the “key person” for all children within the FS2 class and is available to exchange information and discuss things that will benefit your child before and after school.
Parent Observations
Another important part of the EYFS Profile is your knowledge about your child’s learning and development, so do share what your child does with you: such as how confident your child is in writing their name, reading and talking about a favourite book, speaking to people your child is not so familiar with or their understanding of numbers.
Observations can be shared via the Parent Share section of the Evidence Me app. Please click on the image below to go to the Evidence Me login page: