The early years foundation stage is the law by the UK government which sets the foundation and framework which indicates on the foundation of child development and welfare. Especially to those children who comes under the age of 5 years. If the child is under care of any other person except the parents then it’s the duty of government under this law to look after all the necessary requirements. The government keeps on the inspection to check the child is being taken care properly. Specifically this law deals with two further divided frameworks of the childcare. The first one is Learning and Development area whereas, the other area is educational knowledge.
- The first area of learning and development is regarding the enhancement of social, personal and emotional development along with languages, communication and physical development.
- The second area which strictly follows the education development and learning focuses on the literacy, mathematics, the understanding of world around child and arts.
- scope and legal status
The EYFS have set the mandatory framework which supports the legal and scope of this law set by the government. The early years development is widely focused by this law which guides the schools and all the other institutes who provide services in the leaning and development of child under 5 years. The section 39 by the child act care of the British government 2006 provides the extensive information of it legal status. The early year outcomes is the scope of this law which emphasize on the development and learning. The first amendment was done on this law was on 2006 and after that finally in 2012 it was revised which gave the principles to follow while implementing this law in 2014.
Structure of the EYFS
The overall structure of this law deals with three core area, the first one is the requirements of the learning and development, the second one is the assessment of the requirements being full filled and in the end it deal with the requirement of safeguarding the child and its welfare.
- The first one which is learning and development have further seven area which needs to be full filled through providing learning of those seven areas. Those seven areas revolves around the social, personal and emotional development along with languages, communication and physical development, literacy, mathematics, the understanding of world around child and arts.
- The second part of the structure deals with assessment which provides the guidance to parents, practitioner and care programs in recognizing the necessary progress of child in learning and development. Along with the learning and development, the assessment part of structure also helps in recognizing the needs and providing support in those needs. During the learning and development stage of the child, all the stakeholders should get information regarding the day to day progress of this child so they could know how far it’s going and also the provided services are beneficial or not.
- The third and main part of the structure of EYFS is providing the welfare and safeguarding the requirements which child needs. The most important thing for the child is being secure, safe and healthy. This law not only provide the services related to learning and development but overall wellbeing of child also comes under EYFS. There further division of this structural part is child protection and suitable people. When the child is under the 5 years, that child is not aware of how to take care of themselves and the people that child is surrounded with. It’s the duty of government to properly check and balance these two things which provides the overall wellbeing of the child.
Principle and theme
There are four themes which helps and guides through the principles of learning and development of the child.
The following are the principles along with the theme which is the core of EYFS:
- Social, Emotional and Personal Development.
- Physical Development.
- Languages and Communication.
- Understanding the world.
- Expressive design and arts.
The following are the four themes of the EYFS:
- Leaning and development.
- Positive relationships.
- A unique child.
- Enabling Environment.
Early years settings are inspected to check their delivery of the EYFS
Ofsted is the office which is set by the government to provide inspection in checking and regulating the care a child needs by parents and the care provider. The inspections are being carried out by the inspector on weekly basis to check whether the environment, material for leaning and the one who is providing is suitable for the child or not. The goal of these inspections is to achieve the finest care and the excellence in the education of the child. While keeping the check on the education, the inspector also looks into the personal development of the child because the child will grow into the citizen and lead the life accordingly. The nature of the job car you by the inspector is totally independent and they directly report to parliament to avoid any hierarchy which put barrier in the job. Following are the responsibilities of the inspector who carry out inspection:
- The first responsibility is to maintain the schools and other educational institutes which are offering the relevant services.
- The second responsibility is to look after all those people apart from parents who are providing the care to child.
- The third responsibility deals with reports which they design after the inspection and provides the findings in those reports.
- Making sure that all those services which are being provided to child is suitable to that child or not.
- Provide the recommendations to policymakers regarding the effectiveness of the policies designed by them.
Describe how children’s development is assessed at different points
The effective practice carried out by the authorities in order to check the development of the child in different stages. The core and important steps which are being followed in every stage is observation, after that they do assessment and in the end do the planning based on first two stages. Following are the description of these three stages:
- Observation is being provided while watching the type of care given to the child. Also, by talking to child through different set of questions which are being designed and taking notes of those conversations.
- Those notes which are being taken through observation and conversation will be further assessed in this stage so that the inspector could decide whether the needs of that child is being full filled or not. They identify both the positive and negative aspects so that corrective actions could be taken.
- The third and last stage which is being used in different stages of assessment is planning. After he second stage, the planning is being done so that the corrective actions for the betterment of child can be achieved by set of goals of EYFS.
2.1. EYFS safeguarding and welfare requirements
The learning and development goals could only achieved when the child is healthy and safe. The individual needs of the child are their security and wellbeing and meeting those needs is crucial and mandatory as directed by EYFS. There are two most important parts are protection of child and the surrounding of the child whether the child is with suitable people. This involves the inspection of both the homes and school in which the child is being taken care of while it’s learning and development is being achieved. The further description of both the points are as follow:
- The life threatening circumstances of the child should be reported whether it’s in the homes or anywhere the child is present. Not only the child is being secured from those threats but also the investigation goes under the inspection to those people who had created those circumstances.
- The suitable people clause involves the eligibility of those people are giving the necessary care to the child. The requirement of the roles for concerned people is being looked after in this point. The assessment is done not only for the teachers but also the parents are being assessed that whether they are suitable for providing the care a child needs in the early stage of learning and development.
2.2. Explain the rationale behind the safeguarding and welfare requirements
The early age experience of child have the outcomes later in the life of that child not just in personal experience but the educational employment life also being effected through the health and social behavior of that child. According to researchers, the first three years of the child influences the most in the life of child so it is mandatory by the law to protect and provide all necessary requirements to full fill the learning and development outcomes. The strong actions and acts during those first three years have given positive results and the reason of creating EYFS is to protect the child during those years. The environment in the home comes first during those years. The assessment done on the parents and all the people the child is surrounded by in the home.
2.3 -Evaluate the practical implications of the safeguarding and welfare requirements within the EYFS
The advancement of technology have still not being considered in this law. The most important implication is the usage of mobile phone which is still under the research studies to know the impact on the learning and development of child. The usage of these technological gadgets is widely being considered and under the argument that the usage is good or bad for the child or not. The technology skill of the child is being seen a good sign in the education but the health implication can’t be ignored because the gadgets effects badly on the health of small child. The other implication is faced in the assessment of safeguarding the child because it is hard to know what is being taught to child and this can be manipulated by the people surround that child. The criteria of checking and inspection should be more advance.
3.1 -Describe the scope of the areas of learning in the EYFS
The scope of learning comes under the EFYS divided into two parts which further have seven key points. The first area of learning and development is regarding the enhancement of social, personal and emotional development along with languages, communication and physical development. The second area which strictly follows the education development and learning focuses on the literacy, mathematics, the understanding of world around child and arts. The following are the principles along with the theme which is the core of EYFS Social, Emotional and Personal Development, Physical Development, Languages and Communication, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the world and the seventh is Expressive design and arts. The following are the four themes of the EYFS is Leaning and development, Positive relationships, a unique child and Enabling Environment.
3.2 -Evaluate how the four specific areas of learning relate to the three prime areas of the EYFS
The four specific area which is also being discussed were the literacy, mathematics, world understanding and arts. The three primary areas are personal, social and emotional development, physical and communication development. The first four are related to later three primary areas and plays great role for both the stages. The leaning comes from the stability in the emotional and social behavior whereas, the four areas helps in giving the stability in the primary areas.
3.3 -Facilitate play activities for a given child that allows opportunities for the prime areas of learning
The suggested areas of plays for the children for their learning and development specifically for the prime areas are indoor and outdoor activities which helps them learning by getting along with other children, gives them the skills, helps them learning through the mistakes and risks involves in both type of activities. The activities also involves learning in being active, interaction, communication and experiences through different ideas comes into their minds. The sports help in developing their personal, physical and communication development.
3.4 -Use observations of a given child’s development to plan for progress within the EYFS
The progress in the learning and development under the EYFS is a very important step which should be taken consistently or else the goals will not be achieved. The observation phase is being discussed earlier which provides the knowledge and method of using observation method. The effective practice carried out by the authorities in order to check the development of the child in different stages. The core and important steps which are being followed in every stage is observation, after that they do assessment and in the end do the planning based on first two stages. The description of the observation is being provided while watching the type of care given to the child. Also, by talking to child through different set of questions which are being designed and taking notes of those conversations.
Support children’s progress towards EYFS outcomes, progress and planning (Conclusion)
The outcomes of this law is not identifies specifically by the life of child later in life but the government assessed it through the recommendation given by the inspection through notes and observation. The framework, principles, themes, primary and core stages of learning is important in the early age of child. The designing of this law should consider the advancement as the days goes by with technology and changing in the environment. Those children who comes under the age of 5 years. If the child is under care of any other person except the parents then it’s the duty of government under this law to look after all the necessary requirements. The early years development is widely focused by this law which guides the schools and all the other institutes who provide services in the leaning and development of child under 5 years. The overall structure of this law deals with three core area, the first one is the requirements of the learning and development, the second one is the assessment of the requirements being full filled and in the end it deal with the requirement of safeguarding the child and its welfare. The goal of these inspections is to achieve the finest care and the excellence in the education of the child. While keeping the check on the education, the inspector also looks into the personal development of the child because the child will grow into the citizen and lead the life accordingly. The nature of the job car you by the inspector is totally independent and they directly report to parliament to avoid any hierarchy which put barrier in the job. The core and important steps which are being followed in every stage is observation, after that they do assessment and in the end do the planning based on first two stages. The learning and development goals could only achieved when the child is healthy and safe. The individual needs of the child are their security and wellbeing and meeting those needs is crucial and mandatory as directed by EYFS. There are two most important parts are protection of child and the surrounding of the child whether the child is with suitable people. This involves the inspection of both the homes and school in which the child is being taken care of while it’s learning and development is being achieved. According to researchers, the first three years of the child influences the most in the life of child so it is mandatory by the law to protect and provide all necessary requirements to full fill the learning and development outcomes. The strong actions and acts during those first three years have given positive results and the reason of creating EYFS is to protect the child during those years. The environment in the home comes first during those years. The usage of these technological gadgets is widely being considered and under the argument that the usage is good or bad for the child or not. The technology skill of the child is being seen a good sign in the education but the health implication can’t be ignored because the gadgets effects badly on the health of small child. The other implication is faced in the assessment of safeguarding the child because it is hard to know what is being taught to child and this can be manipulated by the people surround that child. Plays for the children for their learning and development specifically for the prime areas are indoor and outdoor activities which helps them learning by getting along with other children, gives them the skills, helps them learning through the mistakes and risks involves in both type of activities. The activities also involves learning in being active, interaction, communication and experiences through different ideas comes into their minds. The sports help in developing their personal, physical and communication development.
References
NEAUM, S. (2010). Child Development for Early Childhood Studies. London, SAGE Publications.
