In the last week, we have seen the publication of Development Matters, the new non-statutory curriculum guidance which supports delivery of the recently revised EYFS. This follows the announcement from the Department for Education around funding to help schools boost early language skills in Reception. We have also heard that an Early Years Sector Coalition...
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Navigating Early Years Policy: Preparing for the Changes Ahead
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Building on Children’s Interests in the EYFS
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Why is this Important? Anyone who has ever spent quality time alongside young children will know that their drive to learn is often powered by their own interests and fascinations. Attempting to teach young children without acknowledging these interests and their prior experiences, can be frustrating for everyone involved and can lead to missed valuable...
...read moreNurturing Children’s Self-Confidence and Security in the EYFS
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As schools fully reopen to all their children in September, the first weeks of the new term are likely to present children, parents and teachers with a great deal of anxiety. The children in our classes will have had varying experiences throughout this Spring and Summer and all will need to feel confident, valued and...
...read moreDeveloping Domestic Role Play – Case Study
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In our recent Early Excellence Blog we explored the vital importance of talk in EYFS classrooms and how high quality role play supports children as they experiment with language, allowing vocabulary to flourish in meaningful contexts. Below you will find a case study from St Gregory’s Catholic School, Margate, looking at how developing their domestic role play enabled enhanced learning...
...read moreMaximising Learning in Continuous Provision – The Water Area
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Exploring and experimenting with water is a key fascination of many children – and if you have it available continuously, you may even find that some children go back to it a lot! Should this be a worry? Well, not as much as you think. If you plan your water area well, you’ll ensure that...
...read moreTaking Continuous Provision beyond the EYFS – Maximising Learning in Key Stage One
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When we compare the curriculum and practices of the Early Years Curriculum to that of the Key Stage 1 Curriculum we are often faced with fundamental differences in both style and content. Learning in the EYFS is active, play-based and hands on, centred around the child and their first hand experiences: this can be in...
...read moreThe Classroom Environment – Setting Up Your New Classroom
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Whether you’re setting up your new classroom for the first time, or changing your existing layout, it is vitally important to get it right. The actions you take and the decisions that you make at this point in the year can have a massive impact for you and your children. Get it right and you’ll...
...read moreThe Classroom Environment – Riot of colour vs Peace and Neutrality
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Just before you reach for yet another brightly coloured roll of paper or border to cover your classroom walls and display boards, stop. Let’s just pause and think for a minute. By beginning displays in this way, what is it that we are adding, what’s the purpose behind our choices? Somewhere along the line, we’ve...
...read moreMaximising Learning in Continuous Provision – Domestic Role Play in EYFS
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A Home Corner is the most familiar experience the children can have. It relates directly to their own lives and their interests and is something that all children have in common regardless of their cultural background or previous experience. Every child can recreate experiences they have at home and with careful planning and the support...
...read moreBlock Play Alongside Small World Resources
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Decisions you make about how you organise and arrange your classroom will have a big impact on the quality of the learning that occurs there. Well organised, well planned provision areas provide meaningful opportunities for independent exploration, effective interactions and focussed teaching. Some areas of provision and collections of resources are most effective when used...
...read moreProviding a Language Rich Curriculum in the EYFS
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In our recent Early Excellence Blog we explored the vital importance of talk in EYFS classrooms. Talk is a key aspect in building strong relationships, developing communication and language skills; and challenging thinking. Practice which values talk needs to be carefully planned and requires skilful adult interaction. Juliet Clark, Assistant Headteacher and EYFS Leader at...
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New to Teaching the EYFS?
Survival Guide Part 3: Making Time for Teaching
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In part three of our Newly Qualified Teacher series, we are going to focus on the role of the adult in the Early Years Foundation Stage. As part of this we will be exploring the balancing act that is teaching in the early years. From whole class teaching and small group work to facilitating and...
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New to Teaching the EYFS?
Survival Guide Part 2: Establishing Systems & Routines
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In part one of our NQT blog we outlined some of the fundamental relationships that need to be formed and nurtured when working in the EYFS environments. Now, let’s look beyond those relationships and begin to look at some of the other key things you’ll need to consider. As a new teacher, it can be...
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New to Teaching the EYFS?
Survival Guide Part 1: Getting to Know Everyone
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As an NQT, starting a new teaching job is exciting, and a chance to put into practice so many ideas that you have seen and heard about through training and teaching practices. As you step into your new classroom, your head will be buzzing with lots of plans and ideas and there will be all...
...read moreFirst Steps: A Review of the Planning Guidance for Early Years
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Like you, we have been trying to keep up with the multiple guidance publications issued by the Department of Education since the outbreak of COVID 19. Many schools and settings we work with have been talking to us about how they have been addressing the challenges raised with relation to safety and welfare of adults...
...read moreThe Challenge for Y1 September 2020 – a cohort unlike any other that has gone before
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Whenever our children arrive back into school, they will have needs unlike any cohort that has gone before them. The range of lockdown experiences in any given class will vary enormously. Some children will bear the effects of trauma, stress or grief, others will only remember uninterrupted family time – but all will have faced...
...read moreNavigating the Sea of Talk
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Being a reflective teacher, we’re often told, is the key to developing effective practice. Realistically though, within the busy school day with many demands on teachers’ time, having the opportunity to stand back and consider our practice is a real rarity. The lockdown period has been an anxious time, but it has given many teachers...
...read moreTransient Art and Loose Parts Play
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Why is Creativity Important? Creative opportunities will give children a sense of control over their surroundings and a feeling of satisfaction and are, therefore, extremely important for their wellbeing at this unsettling time. Alongside this, creative opportunities are valuable because they support children’s thinking skills, encouraging them to express their ideas, solve problems and plan...
...read moreEarly Years Home Schooling in Lockdown
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Home Schooling We’ve entered a new time. A time of home schooling, of online PE lessons, live link up phonics sessions and an avalanche of online support. Much of this will be helpful to children, and parents, as they set about this period of isolation, but I do think we need to be careful here....
...read moreWhat Comes Next? Key Issues for the EYFS and Key Stage One after Lockdown
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One thing that the lockdown situation has given many of us is a lot of is time. As we emerge from isolation, desperately needing haircuts but with kitchen cupboards tidier than they’ve ever been, we will have been through a major upheaval on a national and international scale. Yet, after the whole country, including the...
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