Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS):
The EYFS sets the standards for the quality of care and Education for children aged birth to 5 years in the UK. It identifies learning and development though different areas both Prime and Specific.
Prime Areas of development
Physical development (Prime Area) relates to growth and the development of both fine motor and gross motor skills. The Early Years (0-5 years) are a time of huge developmental changes, sitting, crawling and walking, running and balancing, also picking up and handling objects eventually using pencils and pens and paints to develop writing. Using and controlling their bodies both indoors and outdoors to develop a healthy heart, lungs and strong bones and muscles and developing hand skills in readiness for fastening, manipulating and controlling.
Personal Social and Emotional development ( Prime Area) relates to development in areas such as interaction, resilience, managing feelings, emotions and self-regulating behaviours. It supports growing independence and social skills such as sharing and taking turns.
Communication, language and literacy ( Prime area) relates to verbal and non-verbal communication, early reading and writing. Language development is a major growth area for children in the first years, it is vital for accessing other areas of learning and for making their own needs and wants made known to others. It links closely to Personal, Social and Emotional areas of learning as language is a skill used to share and to identify feelings, wants and emotions. We have provided communication friendly spaces both indoors and outdoors, children will also participate in daily story, singing and discussion times.
The three Prime Areas are interlinked and support each other, they are directly linked to all others of development and will develop at different rates for every child.
Specific areas of development
Mathematics relates to number, space, shape and measure, these develop with time and experience of hands-on activities as concepts are learned.
Knowledge of the world relates to knowledge of families, cultures and the world around us. These are learned through activities which start form the child’s immediate surroundings and family and slowly widens to other peoples, and different locations. It includes who and why things are and involves simple scientific concepts.
Expressive arts and design relates to different media paints, chalks, Pencils and crayons, collage, box modelling and creative, sensory play and music all are used to express ideas, feelings and thoughts and design of simple structures.
The nursery operates a key person system. Each child will be allocated a key person on confirmation of their attendance at the setting. There are opportunities during the children’s settling in sessions for parents and carers to discuss any learning requirements or needs with their child’s key person.
We also provide the family with an “All about me’ form to complete regarding their child’s interests and likes and dislikes. This will enable the key person to plan learning activities around the child’s interests to encourage them to continue to be motivated and eager to play and learn. Children have many opportunities for self-initiated and adult identified learning experiences both indoors and outdoors.
The key person will be the main point of contact for parents, careers and other professionals, as they will have a close relationship with the child as they are their main care giver at Nursery.
Children’s progress will be updated on Baby days which links expectations with the Early Years Foundation Stage. This highlights achievement and progression of development for each child. It enables staff to identify individualised next steps and encourage further knowledge, skills, and experiences. This is shared with parents and feedback is requested to ensure parents understand, are happy with, and involved in their child’s care and education. Parents and carers are also given electronic daily feedback on their under threes child’s personal care and experiences and for over three we give verbal feedback on collection.
Learning experiences are differentiated to include all children regardless of gender, ability, race, SEND, age and language. The nursery staff understand that all children develop at different rates. If a child’s progress in any area of learning causes concern, practitioners discuss this with the child’s parent/carers to agree how best to support the child, we create learning plans and review if they are effective. Practitioners must consider if any child may have special educational needs or a disability which requires special support. Working in partnership with families enables us to liaise with outside agencies to provide support for any children who may have delay in any area of their development.
The Role of the Early Years Practitioners
The practitioners are here to facilitate learning. They do this through intentional observations and interactions. Our practitioners know the children very well and have a sound understanding of child development. This ensures that the adults enhance and extend learning at the appropriate level. Adult interaction is KEY to having quality ‘Teachable Moments’
Observation > Enhancement > Recording > Intention > Implementation > Impact
The aim is to watch and identify a moment, intervene and make a difference to that moment for each child.
In the moment ‘Planning’ (IMP)
At Tiny Robins Interactions, interventions and key moments happen throughout every day. In the moment planning covers all the seven areas of learning (EYFS) and the Characteristics of effective learning (CoEL). practitioners observe the children's play and enhance their learning using the child’s interests to extend knowledge, skills and ability. Children learn "In the moment" Adult forward planning focuses on providing new experiences and extending knowledge. Three goals/ next steps are identified for each child to work towards.
We believe practitioners should be spending their time with the children and not completing paperwork.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL)
Playing and Exploring: do they investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’?
Learning Actively: do they concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements?
Creating and Thinking Critically: do they have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
We ensure our continuous provision, In the moment planning and adult provided experiences meets the learning and developmental needs of every child.
Cultural Capital in the EYFS
All children that start at nursery will have a variety of different life experiences. At Tiny Robins we offer a rich and varied curriculum providing opportunities for children to celebrate and build on these experiences and reach their full potential.
British Values
At Tiny Robins we encourage children to respect and follow guidance of the British Values of Democracy, Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, Mutual Respect and tolerance. We do this by treating everybody equally, learning right from wrong, Listening to and respecting other peoples opinions, being helpful and kind and understanding that our behaviour has consequences. We encourage the children to learn about and celebrate all cultures and beliefs.
Our curriculum is implemented both indoors and outdoors with equal importance placed on where the children learn. We play and learn outdoors every day.
SEND (special educational needs and disabilities)
We are a fully inclusive setting. We believe children only get one childhood and they deserve to get the support they need to thrive and prepare for happy, healthy and productive adulthoods. For children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), this is especially vital. We are extremely lucky to have a dedicated SEN nursery assistant who works on a one to one basis with children with special needs.
We believe that working with parents we are able to offer an individualised and dignified experience for children with SEND and hope to increase families’ confidence in the Care and education system. Some children with SEND in the Early Years will need access to increased staff:child ratios if their needs are to be met and, as a provider, the Equality Act 2010 says we must make “Reasonable Adjustments” to do this. We support children and their families to access funding where possible, this allows us to meet every child’s individual needs.
If you are struggling to access additional funding, the booklet “Childcare for Children with Families with Disabled Children” will offer advice.
FREE CHILDCARE AND EDUCATION
Currently every child aged 3 and 4 years old is entitled to receive a maximum of 15 hours of free early education per week until they reach compulsory school age (the term following their 5th birthday) You do not need to apply for this it is automatically allocated.
We accept employer scheme childcare vouchers
The majority of Government funding for early years providers in England is currently delivered via three childcare entitlements:
15 hours universal entitlement for all three and four-year-olds.
15 hours entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds. Your 2-year-old can get free childcare if you live in England and get any of the following benefits:
You and any partner, must each expect to earn (on average) the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at your national minimum wage (£120 at the National Living Wage, less if you are on the National Minimum Wage). But no more than 100,000
If you or your partner are on maternity, paternity or adoption leave or you're unable to work because you are disabled or have caring responsibilities, you could still be eligible.
It applies the term after they turn 3 years old and have received a valid 30 hours code, whichever is later. Term start dates are 1st September, 1st January and 1st April.
You may get asked for further information as part of your application, so apply well ahead of the start date for each term. To keep your 30 hours free childcare place, you need to check your details are up to date every 3 months.
The 30 hours free childcare offer is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables (such as nappies or sun cream), additional hours or additional activities (such as trips). Providers may charge a fee for these additions. If you choose to pay for these it is an arrangement between you and the childcare provider.
From April 2024 eligible working parents of 2-year-olds are able to access 15 hours childcare support.
From September 2024 15 hours of free childcare was extended to all children from the age of 9 months.
From September 2025, working parents of children 9 months to five years will be entitled to 30 hours of free childcare a week.
Please be aware the funding entitlement does not come in to effect until the term after they become of age.
The EYFS sets the standards for the quality of care and Education for children aged birth to 5 years in the UK. It identifies learning and development though different areas both Prime and Specific.
Prime Areas of development
Physical development (Prime Area) relates to growth and the development of both fine motor and gross motor skills. The Early Years (0-5 years) are a time of huge developmental changes, sitting, crawling and walking, running and balancing, also picking up and handling objects eventually using pencils and pens and paints to develop writing. Using and controlling their bodies both indoors and outdoors to develop a healthy heart, lungs and strong bones and muscles and developing hand skills in readiness for fastening, manipulating and controlling.
Personal Social and Emotional development ( Prime Area) relates to development in areas such as interaction, resilience, managing feelings, emotions and self-regulating behaviours. It supports growing independence and social skills such as sharing and taking turns.
Communication, language and literacy ( Prime area) relates to verbal and non-verbal communication, early reading and writing. Language development is a major growth area for children in the first years, it is vital for accessing other areas of learning and for making their own needs and wants made known to others. It links closely to Personal, Social and Emotional areas of learning as language is a skill used to share and to identify feelings, wants and emotions. We have provided communication friendly spaces both indoors and outdoors, children will also participate in daily story, singing and discussion times.
The three Prime Areas are interlinked and support each other, they are directly linked to all others of development and will develop at different rates for every child.
Specific areas of development
Mathematics relates to number, space, shape and measure, these develop with time and experience of hands-on activities as concepts are learned.
Knowledge of the world relates to knowledge of families, cultures and the world around us. These are learned through activities which start form the child’s immediate surroundings and family and slowly widens to other peoples, and different locations. It includes who and why things are and involves simple scientific concepts.
Expressive arts and design relates to different media paints, chalks, Pencils and crayons, collage, box modelling and creative, sensory play and music all are used to express ideas, feelings and thoughts and design of simple structures.
The nursery operates a key person system. Each child will be allocated a key person on confirmation of their attendance at the setting. There are opportunities during the children’s settling in sessions for parents and carers to discuss any learning requirements or needs with their child’s key person.
We also provide the family with an “All about me’ form to complete regarding their child’s interests and likes and dislikes. This will enable the key person to plan learning activities around the child’s interests to encourage them to continue to be motivated and eager to play and learn. Children have many opportunities for self-initiated and adult identified learning experiences both indoors and outdoors.
The key person will be the main point of contact for parents, careers and other professionals, as they will have a close relationship with the child as they are their main care giver at Nursery.
Children’s progress will be updated on Baby days which links expectations with the Early Years Foundation Stage. This highlights achievement and progression of development for each child. It enables staff to identify individualised next steps and encourage further knowledge, skills, and experiences. This is shared with parents and feedback is requested to ensure parents understand, are happy with, and involved in their child’s care and education. Parents and carers are also given electronic daily feedback on their under threes child’s personal care and experiences and for over three we give verbal feedback on collection.
Learning experiences are differentiated to include all children regardless of gender, ability, race, SEND, age and language. The nursery staff understand that all children develop at different rates. If a child’s progress in any area of learning causes concern, practitioners discuss this with the child’s parent/carers to agree how best to support the child, we create learning plans and review if they are effective. Practitioners must consider if any child may have special educational needs or a disability which requires special support. Working in partnership with families enables us to liaise with outside agencies to provide support for any children who may have delay in any area of their development.
The Role of the Early Years Practitioners
The practitioners are here to facilitate learning. They do this through intentional observations and interactions. Our practitioners know the children very well and have a sound understanding of child development. This ensures that the adults enhance and extend learning at the appropriate level. Adult interaction is KEY to having quality ‘Teachable Moments’
Observation > Enhancement > Recording > Intention > Implementation > Impact
The aim is to watch and identify a moment, intervene and make a difference to that moment for each child.
In the moment ‘Planning’ (IMP)
At Tiny Robins Interactions, interventions and key moments happen throughout every day. In the moment planning covers all the seven areas of learning (EYFS) and the Characteristics of effective learning (CoEL). practitioners observe the children's play and enhance their learning using the child’s interests to extend knowledge, skills and ability. Children learn "In the moment" Adult forward planning focuses on providing new experiences and extending knowledge. Three goals/ next steps are identified for each child to work towards.
We believe practitioners should be spending their time with the children and not completing paperwork.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL)
Playing and Exploring: do they investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’?
Learning Actively: do they concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements?
Creating and Thinking Critically: do they have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
We ensure our continuous provision, In the moment planning and adult provided experiences meets the learning and developmental needs of every child.
Cultural Capital in the EYFS
All children that start at nursery will have a variety of different life experiences. At Tiny Robins we offer a rich and varied curriculum providing opportunities for children to celebrate and build on these experiences and reach their full potential.
British Values
At Tiny Robins we encourage children to respect and follow guidance of the British Values of Democracy, Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, Mutual Respect and tolerance. We do this by treating everybody equally, learning right from wrong, Listening to and respecting other peoples opinions, being helpful and kind and understanding that our behaviour has consequences. We encourage the children to learn about and celebrate all cultures and beliefs.
Our curriculum is implemented both indoors and outdoors with equal importance placed on where the children learn. We play and learn outdoors every day.
SEND (special educational needs and disabilities)
We are a fully inclusive setting. We believe children only get one childhood and they deserve to get the support they need to thrive and prepare for happy, healthy and productive adulthoods. For children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), this is especially vital. We are extremely lucky to have a dedicated SEN nursery assistant who works on a one to one basis with children with special needs.
We believe that working with parents we are able to offer an individualised and dignified experience for children with SEND and hope to increase families’ confidence in the Care and education system. Some children with SEND in the Early Years will need access to increased staff:child ratios if their needs are to be met and, as a provider, the Equality Act 2010 says we must make “Reasonable Adjustments” to do this. We support children and their families to access funding where possible, this allows us to meet every child’s individual needs.
If you are struggling to access additional funding, the booklet “Childcare for Children with Families with Disabled Children” will offer advice.
FREE CHILDCARE AND EDUCATION
Currently every child aged 3 and 4 years old is entitled to receive a maximum of 15 hours of free early education per week until they reach compulsory school age (the term following their 5th birthday) You do not need to apply for this it is automatically allocated.
We accept employer scheme childcare vouchers
The majority of Government funding for early years providers in England is currently delivered via three childcare entitlements:
15 hours universal entitlement for all three and four-year-olds.
15 hours entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds. Your 2-year-old can get free childcare if you live in England and get any of the following benefits:
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Universal Credit, and your household income is £15,400 a year or less after tax, not including benefit payments
- the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit (or both), and your household income is £16,190 a year or less before tax
- the Working Tax Credit 4-week run on (the payment you get when you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
You and any partner, must each expect to earn (on average) the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at your national minimum wage (£120 at the National Living Wage, less if you are on the National Minimum Wage). But no more than 100,000
If you or your partner are on maternity, paternity or adoption leave or you're unable to work because you are disabled or have caring responsibilities, you could still be eligible.
It applies the term after they turn 3 years old and have received a valid 30 hours code, whichever is later. Term start dates are 1st September, 1st January and 1st April.
You may get asked for further information as part of your application, so apply well ahead of the start date for each term. To keep your 30 hours free childcare place, you need to check your details are up to date every 3 months.
The 30 hours free childcare offer is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables (such as nappies or sun cream), additional hours or additional activities (such as trips). Providers may charge a fee for these additions. If you choose to pay for these it is an arrangement between you and the childcare provider.
From April 2024 eligible working parents of 2-year-olds are able to access 15 hours childcare support.
From September 2024 15 hours of free childcare was extended to all children from the age of 9 months.
From September 2025, working parents of children 9 months to five years will be entitled to 30 hours of free childcare a week.
Please be aware the funding entitlement does not come in to effect until the term after they become of age.