Assessment processes within the EYFS can, if we’re not careful, be a bit of a minefield. As with many things, the extremes are to be avoided. At one end of the spectrum, too many recorded observations can leave us swamped by information that may not be useful, at the other, a simple tick sheet won’t...
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Exploring the Key Principles of Effective Assessment
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The Challenge for Y1 – 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 moreNurturing Children’s Self-Confidence and Security in the EYFS
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As schools fully reopen to all their children, 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 lockdown and all will need to feel confident, valued and secure in the school environment...
...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 moreMoving Forward: Exploring Changes, Challenges and Opportunities in the EYFS
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Back in the summer I was kindly asked by Nursery World to offer some thoughts on how things had changed since the pandemic; the impact this was having on everyday life, our families, our friends, ourselves and the children we work with. Few could have imagined where we would be now and how the many...
...read moreWhat is Continuous Provision?
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What is Continuous Provision? Early years education is special and unique with its focus on child development, effective learning characteristics and holistic approaches. It’s this breadth that can sometimes be baffling to those who view early years practice from afar. In fact, the early years is so unique that it has its own terminology: terms...
...read moreMeaningful Mathematics, A Focus on EYFS Pedagogy
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If we want children to successfully embed a range of mathematical concepts then we really need to reflect on our pedagogy first. Effective teaching of mathematics in the EYFS doesn’t just happen on the carpet, or at the group table, but rather acknowledges that it is meaningful, physical exploration of concepts that enables them to...
...read moreEYFS in Lockdown – Meaningful Learning Opportunities in the Home
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From Zoom meetings and Facetime chats to online activity ideas and YouTube story times, technology has provided us with the ability to stay connected with family, friends and our classes with relative ease during this lockdown period. Understandably, most of our responses as EYFS teachers during the current crisis, have been based around the use...
...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 moreEYFS in Lockdown – The importance of Valuing Children’s Interests
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As we try to get to grips with this new, isolated way of life, education for our youngest children has also changed dramatically. EYFS teachers have been working incredibly hard to fulfil their teaching role whilst staying safe and staying at home. What teachers are trying to do is completely understandable: aiming to maintain a...
...read moreExploring Powerful Learning Through Domestic Role Play
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Young children have a natural interest in their own lives and their own circle of experience. They will often seek out opportunities to play imaginatively with familiar contexts, exploring the relationships between key people in their lives and the actions that surround them on a daily basis. This powerful drive to learn about their own...
...read moreThe impact of a child-centred Curriculum in KS1
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Discover the impact of developing a child-centred, play-based curriculum in KS1 on both levels of engagement, of both children and staff, and progress towards end of Year Two expectations. In this blog, Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire reflects on how they have...
...read morePlan, Do, Review in KS1
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In this blog, Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire describes how an effective balance between child and adult led learning was established in KS1 and how adult support is key to the quality of learning when children work with continuous provision...
...read moreDeveloping an Enabling Environment in KS1
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In this blog, Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire writes about how she and her KS1 team defined and developed an enabling environment that built on the EYFS and reflected the demands of the KS1 curriculum. The first challenge was to...
...read morePlay-Based Curriculum in KS1
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Do you offer a play-based curriculum in Key Stage 1? Discover an inspiring and informative series of blogs written by Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire. Jo describes how she and her team moved towards a child-centred, play-based curriculum in Key...
...read moreNavigating Early Years Policy: Preparing for the Changes Ahead
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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...
...read moreBuilding 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 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...
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