Study day 10

Study Day 8: Early Years Foundation Stage
The legal status and principles of EYFS
The EYFS statutory Framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that it achieves the Ofsted regulations. At children learn and develop and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s school readiness and gives children the broad knowledge and skills and provides the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.
The primary purpose of the EYFS Profile is to provide a reliable, valid and accurate assessment of individual children at the end of the EYFS.
The primary uses of EYFS Profile data are as follows. These have informed the development of the Profile.
To inform parents about their child’s development against the ELGs and the characteristics of their learning.
To support a smooth transition to key stage 1 by informing the professional discussion between EYFS and key stage 1 teachers.
To help year 1 teachers plan an effective, responsive and appropriate curriculum that will meet the needs of all children
Welfare requirements - Within your setting you should safeguard and promote Children’s welfare, we must take necessary steps to ensure this. We must promote good health of all children within our care and take steps to prevent the spread of infection from others within our care and take appropriate action when they are ill. We must ensure that there are suitable people and staffing levels are appropriate to ensure safety to all children. The premises, environment and equipment must be suitable to cater for the children, these include outdoor and indoor spaces, furniture, equipment and toys and they must be safe and suitable for the children in your care, age/stage appropriate.

Your safeguarding/admissions/settling in policies should be kept up to date. It is important for all staff to read all policies and procedures. As a practitioner you should be aware of nutrition needs and plan healthy meals/snacks for children and on some occasions give advice to parents. You should be aware of portion sizes, this is important because children can still become overweight on healthy foods if they are given too much. Every setting should have routines they should reflect the varying needs of all children within your group especially in terms of sleep and rest. All routines should allow time for outdoor play for all ages. Routines also need to be flexible enough to allow the children to finish their task. Under the EYFS we as practitioners observe children during physical play this is to note the skills that they are showing and what could be emerging, this gives us important information on how we can support the child such as providing new activities, toys or simply encourage the child. Within the EYFS it is important to work closely with parents, we can find out their child’s needs, you can also provide support and advice on topics, sleep, toilet training and nutrition.
It is important to engage with children and motivate them to help support sustained shared thinking. Young children learn from everything they do. They are naturally curious; they want to explore and discover. If their explorations bring pleasure or success, they will want to learn more. During these early years, children form attitudes about learning that will last a lifetime. Children who receive the right sort of support and encouragement during these years will be creative, adventurous learners throughout their lives. Children who do not receive this sort of support and interaction are likely to have a much different attitude about learning later in life.
Children do many things simply because they want to do them. Selecting a toy or a shirt to wear is the result of "intrinsic motivation." The child makes her own choice and achieves satisfaction from both the act of choosing and from the opportunity to play with the toy or wear the shirt. Since the activity is generating the motivation, it is mostly self-sustaining for as long as the child wants to continue the activity.
Children also engage in some activities because adults tell them to, or in an effort to please another party. These activities are "extrinsically motivated." When a child is extrinsically motivated, the reward comes from outside the child-it has to be provided by someone else, and has to be continually given for the child to remain motivated enough to continue the activity. It is more difficult for a child to sustain extrinsically motivated activity because of this reliance upon some outside force.
Since intrinsically motivated activity is more rewarding in and of itself, children learn more from this sort of activity, and they retain that learning better. Intrinsically motivated children are more involved in their own learning and development. In other words, a child is more likely to learn and retain information when he is intrinsically motivated - when he believes he is pleasing himself. Parents can build on this sense of confidence by guiding their child's play and activities while still giving the child a range of options. This unstructured play is an essential element of the child's motivation, learning, and development.
Persistence is the ability to stay with a task for a reasonably long period of time. While very young children cannot concentrate on one activity for an hour, there are still measurable differences in the length of time that young children will engage in an activity. A highly motivated child will stay involved for a long period of time, whereas an unmotivated child will give up very easily when not instantly successful. Children learn persistence when they are successful at a challenging task. The art in building persistence is in offering a task that is just challenging enough, but not overwhelming.
Choice of challenge is another characteristic of motivation. Children who experience success in meeting one challenge will become motivated, welcoming another. These motivated learners will choose an activity that is slightly difficult for them, but provides an appropriate challenge. When they successfully complete such a task, children gain a high level of satisfaction. Unmotivated children (those who have not experienced early success) will pick something that is very easy and ensures an instant success. With such easy success, children feel only a very low level of satisfaction, because they know that the task offered little challenge. The challenge for parents is helping their child find an appropriate challenge while still allowing the choice to be the child's.
The amount of dependency on adults is another indicator of motivation. Children with strong intrinsic motivation do not need an adult constantly watching and helping with activities. Children who have a lower level of motivation or are extrinsically motivated need constant attention from adults and cannot function independently. Since independence is an important aspect of quality learning, this dependence on adults will greatly limit children's ability to succeed in school. Parents can increase the likelihood of their child's building independent motivation by providing toys and activities that play to the child's natural creativity and curiosity. Often, these are the simplest, most basic playthings: blocks, little plastic "people," a toy car or two, and crayons and paper. These things encourage children to invent their own worlds rather than depending on an adult to entertain them.

The importance of a person centred and inclusive approach
This widely depends on the child’s age and ability, involving them in descions within their lives. This can create a learning plan to suit the needs of the specific child. You would also need to work alongside the parents and carers individually allowing the child to feel includes and valued. You can also cater specific task to the child using observations this can give constructive specific feedback. Plan the child’s next steps using their observations to ensure the child is developing at their own ability and time.
How children’s learning can be promoted within the framework through:

Providing a well organised, stimulating learning environment enhances children's learning. The purpose, particularly for younger children, is to provide a stimulus when they are thinking about planning. The learning environment is planned and managed to make resources easily accessible to all children, which means that they know what is available, where it is and where to put it back when they have finished using it! Shadow storage and labelling of areas supports this and allows adults and children to see at a glance what needs to be put away if anything is missing. Each area is planned and resourced to be literate and numerate. When and wherever possible areas and planning reflect cultural diversity. We positively challenge all forms of stereotyping. Each term staff work together as a team to make medium term plans for enhanced provision in independent learning in the Foundation Stage. These plans introduce new stimulus, link to other curriculum area plans and are made to develop and extend learning experiences. They also identify which member of staff will be the main provider for each area. Plans are displayed in the classroom for reference of staff, parents and helpers. A copy is also kept in the planning file. Each week a short-term plan for enhanced provision in their plan, do, and review sessions is made and displayed alongside medium term plans in the classroom to be shared by staff and parents. Making the learning environment manageable by everyone enables all children and adults to see what resources we have and how to keep them tidy. As a result adult time can be spent supporting and extending children's learning, rather than managing resources.

When working with children it's important to value their interests and experiences not only is this good practice, it's also a requirement of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. (EYFS)

The main way to find out children's interests is through observations. By observing we can see what activities interest them. By observing children you can see what they already enjoy doing and which activities help them to concentrate. We can also find out their interests by asking the children themselves asking their parents/carers and through home-visiting.

From knowing children's interests it can help us to plan more effectively as we can plan activities that we know children will participate in and enjoy. Planning an activity which interests children means they are more likely to concentrate and there for learn more than if they didn't enjoy the activity. Babies and children will always concentrate and therefore learn more easily if they are doing something they are interested in and enjoying. In the placement I am in there is a group of boys who practically like super-hero's so we use pictures of them and include them into the main topic and the boys stay interested for longer. Through listening and valuing children's experiences we can learn a lot about them such as their cultural backgrounds and how they do things at home appose to the way they do them in the nursery setting. As practitioners it's important to value children's interests and experiences as it show the children we are listening to them, it helps them to become their own individual person, to concentrate more, have higher self-esteem and it also helps to have a better understanding of the child in their personality and way of life. You can value children by listening properly to them and acknowledging their efforts, ideas and interests.

Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children learn to think. We use the Early Years Foundation Stage to plan and provide a range of play activities which help children to make progress in each of the areas of leaning and development. In some of these activities the children decide how they will use the activity, and in others, an adult will take the lead in helping the children to take part in the activity.

Examples of ways in which practioner’s can support and facilitate children:
Focus on the process (rather than the goal) of play. Ask exploratory questions that help extend the child’s play. A child is making honking noises as he pushes a truck. Practioner. Where is that truck going?’’ or “That is such a noisy truck. What is it honking at?”
A child holds a baby doll in the kitchen play area. Practioner: “What does the baby like to eat?”

Elaborate and build on children’s play or interests. Make comments, offer new and varied materials.
A child is busy racing and crashing trains.
Teacher: “Those trains really must be in a hurry. I wonder what they are doing.”
For children who enjoy the creative arts table, offer varied art situations to support explorations, such as sponges, rollers, and different textures to paint on. This builds on children’s interests while extending the types of experiences they have.
Talk about what the children are doing or ask questions to support and extend their play.
Teacher: “You are washing that baby. She must have been dirty,” “I wonder where that pig is going now. Is he hungry?”
Reflect the emotions children express in their play and actions. This labels and validates children’s feelings.
A child stomps away from a peer who is using her favorite truck.
Teacher: “It made you really angry when Jacob took your dump truck.”
A child sits quietly in a corner soon after her parent has left. Her head is down, and she is not engaged.
Teacher: “You really miss your mommy. She always comes back to get you. It’s OK to miss your mommy when you’re at school.”
Define the problem. Help children learn negotiation skills. Encourage them to think about alternatives.
Two children are tugging on a ball.
Teacher: “It looks like you both want that ball. What can you do to work this out?” If the children are too young or lack the verbal abilities to verbalize a solution, the teacher can try to define the conflict and offer an alternative: “It looks like you both want that ball. Here is another one just like it that one of you can use.”
One child grabs a marker away from another child, who then cries.
Teacher: “It looks like there is a problem here. Can each of you say what just happened?” If children are young and lack verbal abilities, the teacher can say, “It looks like you both need that marker. Next time, you can tell Lupe, ‘That’s mine!’” At the same time, she offers another marker.
All of the desired toys are being used in the context of a pretend play situation. If a child looks around for a toy to use but is not engaged, suggest alternatives.
Teacher: “This rolling pin can be a pretend phone” or “This scarf would make a warm blanket.”

Provide varied materials to encourage exploration and play.

Provide materials not usually found at home – finger paints, a variety of musical instruments, dress-up clothes, and hammer toys. These allow children to engage in open-ended and exploratory play.
Supply natural and synthetic materials – feathers, leaves, sand, water, shaving cream (in the water table), Styrofoam, scarves, stickers. These provide a range of opportunities for exploration and play.
Add “real life” toys, like kitchen utensils, blankets and pillows, and medical kits that provide opportunities for symbolic play and to work out fears.

Provide open-ended materials for play

Wooden blocks, Legos and other building toys, and play dough all provide children with open-ended stimuli that allow them to play as they choose.
Add props to encourage pretend play – people or animal figures in the block area, baby dolls or plastic dishes in the water table.

Practioners should also strive to model good behaviour for the children. This means everything from saying please and thank you, picking up books and toys, turning off the lights when leaving a room and refraining from swearing. Modelling good behaviour should also take place outside of the house, such as by holding doors open for others at the shopping centre, waiting for the light to cross a street and waiting patiently in a queue. The more that children see their parents and practioners acting appropriately the more normal it becomes, and the more likely they will be to copy this good behaviour themselves. Adult-led activities are based on our own professional understanding of what we should teach young children and what experiences they should have. Through adult-led activities we can introduce children to new ideas, provide opportunities for them to develop their skills and ensure that they experience all six areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). During adult-led learning we can feel that we are in control of the teaching we are providing. However, what we cannot have any control over is what young children are learning from these experiences. This is why it is so important to balance adult-led learning with time and opportunity for children to explore their own ideas, play with resources and use their imagination and creativity. It is only through doing this and practising the skills that they have learned that children will be able to take ownership of their learning and be able to apply it in different situations. To provide high-quality experiences for young children we should aim for a balance of one-third adult-directed activities and one-third child-initiated activities. The other third of the time should ideally be taken up by child-initiated activities that are then picked up on and supported by an adult – these are opportunities for ‘sustained shared thinking’ to take place. When explaining to colleagues and parents the importance of children’s self-initiated play and learning you may find it useful to use the phrase ‘the serious business of play’. This comes from the Foundation Phase framework in Wales and is very effective in giving children’s self-initiated play and learning the importance it deserves. Children learn through first-hand experiential activities with the serious business of ‘play’ providing the vehicle. Through their play children practise and consolidate their learning, play with ideas, experiment, take risks, solve problems, and make decision. First-hand experiences allow children to develop an understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Practical ideas The role of the adult in child-initiated learning is to: organise the physical environment so children have access to a wide range of interesting open-ended resources to explore and investigate imaginatively develop an emotional environment where children feel safe to share their thoughts and ideas and try things out without being afraid that they might ‘get things wrong’ manage the routine of the day to make sure that children have time to follow their own ideas and develop their self-initiated play teach children the practical skills they need to handle tools and equipment safely help children to develop the social skills and dispositions they need to cooperate with others and work as part of a team observe and document children’s learning and use this information to plan what sort of opportunities and experiences to offer children next to deepen their understanding. To support child-initiated learning in your setting, think about how you provide a wide range of interesting open-ended resources for children to explore and use. Include natural materials such as sand, clay and water. Present wood, shells, polished stones, leaves, cones, and seed pods attractively – in wicker baskets or wooden sorting trays for example – and provide high-quality magnifiers to encourage children to look closely and ask questions. Use reclaimed materials from creative recycling centres such as cardboard tubes, lengths of fabric and ribbon, coloured bottle tops, large buttons, plastic offcuts, pieces of leather, small containers. Store these in divided wooden or plastic trays and encourage children to resort the materials when they have finished using them. Provide a wide range of flat and curved mirrors – in different places and at different angles to one another – to create unusual reflections and present resources in interesting ways. Create a darkened area in your setting where children can explore light and shadow – using a light box, torches or an overhead projector. This could be in a darkened room, in a den or simply under a table with a heavy cloth draped over it. Make sure children have access to the outdoors and that you provide resources for them to explore and investigate on a large scale. Outdoors is the best place to really explore how water behaves when you pour and tip it, pump it or carry it around.
Why the framework emphasises a personal and individual approach to learning and development
This is important as the child needs to be placed at the centre of all the learning and development, this helps to enhance their emotional well-being and shows respect for their individuality. They need to have the opportunity to develop there self-awareness the ability to manage their own emotions and to emphasise with others and handle relationships. They would also need to take into consideration the child’s wishes and feelings which are identified and taken into account of. The child would be involved in descion making as appropriate.
How you should assess and record the outcomes
Every child that starts the nursery all have their own profile folder with their name and picture on it. All their assessments, observations, work are all recorded in there. This is displayed outside on the corridor so the parents have access to their child’s profile. Observations are carried out every month which consists of one detailed observation with the child’s photo to show exactly how the child is playing. Along with the two short observations with exactly the same method. They both will have next steps which will be easy and in link with the observations so that the child’s is able to achieve it. The date which the child is in and the next step transferred onto the planning. That sheet is then used to set up the room based on the children interest. There’s also settling in profile which is carried out when the child first starts which the key person. This is important as it gives the key person a lot more information about the child which would help them to settle in better and be more familiar with the child and get to know their likes and dislikes.
The factors to take into account when assessing development
Confidentiality
Confidential information is ‘personal information of a private or sensitive nature’ that:
• is not already lawfully in the public domain or readily available from another public source;
• has been shared in a relationship where the person giving the information could reasonably expect it would not be shared with others.
Nursery staff can be said to have a ‘confidential relationship’ with families. Some families share information about themselves readily and should be consulted about whether this information is confidential or not. Where third parties share information about an individual, staff need to check if that is confidential, both in terms of the subject sharing the information and the person whom the information concerns.
Information shared in the context of a nursery setting is confidential to the setting and, in some defined circumstances, to other staff within the organisation. For example, a nursery manager may discuss a family in a supervision meeting with a senior manager for the purpose of professional support, clarification and accountability regarding the organisation’s procedures.
There may be times when confidential information about a family may need to be shared with others at senior level in the organisation – for example, a high-profile case that may be reported in the press would need to be brought to the attention of the chief executive.
Ethnic, linguistic and cultural background
Play materials, books and other resources can be offered in a constructive way by reflecting on how young children learn about culture and cultural identity.
Shared culture is communicated through the events of daily life, such as food, ways of dress and familiar music or art forms. A sense of personal identity through culture is supported by shared language and ways of communicating and sometimes through a shared faith or religious backdrop to daily life. Young children of every cultural or ethnic background need to develop a secure and positive sense of their own identity. Children’s family life will be the most significant source of that identity. Nursery or playgroup life should reinforce it. On a firm basis of ‘my own culture’, children are then able to make sense and learn about information highlighting less familiar cultures. Experiences outside the family, including within early years settings, can be a significant source of this broader base of understanding. So long as practitioners offer experiences in a thoughtful and well-informed way, there is a good chance that children will learn respect for ways of life with which they are less acquainted.
It is vitally important that children can see themselves and their family reflected in play resources, visual images and books. Good practice includes reviewing the messages given by all your resources and the experiences you offer. In a steady fashion, you have a responsibility to extend young children’s understanding beyond their own backyard.
Posters, photographs and other visual images can give the message, even to very young children, that all these people who look different in many ways are part of our nursery and our community. Children see themselves and people who look like their family.
There are plenty of quality story and information books that reflect the fact that the UK is a culturally diverse society.
Children benefit from stories with characters who look like them. Children can feel excluded if ‘people like me’ only appear in books about ‘children from other lands’.
Good illustrated information books for children approach diversity through shared experiences: ways to welcome a new baby, family celebrations, different games or important transitions like going to school.
There is always some ethnic diversity in a neighbourhood, although large urban areas are likely to have populations with more obvious differences in skin colour, physical appearance and dress. It would be poor practice to restrict play resources in a mainly ‘white’ area on the grounds that ‘nobody round here looks like that, so…’ Nurseries and playgroups extend children’s general knowledge in many directions that cannot be observed locally. You need to acknowledge the cultural diversity that is part of daily life, sometimes only an hour or so away by train or car.
Resources for pretend play can be inclusive in terms of cultural diversity: dolls and small play figures, dressing up clothes or the home corner equipment. All materials should be offered with equal respect, as part of somebody’s normal life. For instance, the words ‘multicultural dressing up clothes’ are used in some catalogues to describe non-European clothing. The phrase could imply that there is ‘normal clothing worn by us’ and ‘exotic outfits worn in other cultures.’
Children welcome experiencing food, music or dance forms that reflect their own family and neighbourhood experiences. Early childhood is a good time to offer opportunities that enable children to stretch beyond the familiar. But again it is important that experiences help children understand that there are different ways to meet basic needs like food and drink. Every culture has some kind of traditional cuisine. Of course, families with English roots should be asked to contribute foods to a multicultural buffet evening, not just families from other countries.
Children can learn to appreciate cultural diversity in styles of art, craft, music and dance. All opportunities need to be well grounded in positive pride for the styles common in every child’s own background. Children are attuned to what is familiar and may take a while to become accustomed to less familiar musical patterns. Supportive practitioners establish a ground rule, much as with food, that it is fine to say you are ‘not keen’, but nobody is rude about music or dance that belongs to other people.
A shaky grasp of child development can lead some practitioners into unbalanced attempts to promote understanding of ‘other cultures’ without sufficient attention to children’s own cultural identity. A key message for equality practice is that there is no rush. Children become confused if early years practitioners feel pressure to rattle through a long list of ‘multicultural activities’, including many celebrations, before children enter formal school. A few quality experiences can start children on the road to appreciating diverse cultures and traditions.
The early year’s curriculum frameworks emphasize developing young children’s own sense of identity and a positive sense of pride in their own family origins. Starting with themselves, young children can develop a sense of belonging to the local community and begin to understand and respect less familiar cultures.

Disability or additional needs
Having a child with special needs means you're likely to get involved with the education system much earlier than you would for a child without special needs.
Every nursery and pre-school must allow children with special educational needs (SEN) to attend. They should have an SEN Policy and an Inclusion Statement, which are documents that set out their responsibilities and procedures for children with SEN.
Every nursery and pre-school must also have a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), also known as an Additional Needs Coordinator, who will be the big cheese as far as getting your child additional help is concerned. The SENCO should take the lead in managing your child's educational needs and, ideally, should liaise between you and the nursery staff when needed.