Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and Peculiarities

Last Updated: 28 Mar 2023
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Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfill their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years, and a child's experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe, and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.

The Early Years Foundation Stage framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children's 'school readiness' and gives children a broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life. The guidance materials are used to ensure settings provide: quality and consistency in all early years settings so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind;

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  • A secure foundation through learning and development opportunities that are planned around the needs and interests of each individual child and are assessed and reviewed regularly;

  • Partnership working between practitioners and parents and/or carers;

  • Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

The EYFS framework specifies requirements for learning and development and for safeguarding children and promoting their welfare. 

Here is a list of different approaches: Reggio Emilia Montessori Common core Reggio Emilia, The Reggio Approach, gets its name from its place of origin, Reggio Emilia, a city located in Emilia Romagna in Northern Italy. After the Second World War, Loris Malaguzzi, a young teacher and the founder of this unique system, joined teams with the parents of this region to provide child care for young children. Over the last 50 years, this education system has developed into a unique program that has caught the attention of early childhood educators worldwide.

Of special interest is the emphasis on children's symbolic languages in the context of a project-oriented curriculum. The Reggio Emilia approach is made possible through a carefully articulated and collaborated approach to the care and education of young children. Here are the key points of the Reggio Emilia: Community support and parental involvement, Administrative policies and organizational features, Teachers as learners, The role of the environment, Long-term projects as vehicles for learning A hundred languages of children, Community support and parental involvement

Traditions of community support for families with young children come from Italy's cultural view of children as the collective responsibility of the state. The parent's role is the same as the community's, at both school-wide and the classroom level. Parents have to take part in discussions about school policy, child development concerns, and curriculum planning and evaluation. Because most parents are employed, meetings are held in the evenings so that all who want to take part can do so. Administrative policies and organizational features

A head administrator reports directly to the town council, who works with a group of curriculum team leaders, each of whom coordinates the efforts of teachers from 5 or 6 centers. Each of these centers is staffed by two teachers per classroom, in which there are 12 children in infant classes, 18 in toddlers classes, and 24 in pre-primary classes; one teacher trained in arts who works with classroom teachers in curriculum development and documentation, and several auxiliary staff. There is no principle, and there is no hierarchical relationship between teachers.

This staffing plan, alongside the policy of keeping the same group o children and teachers together for the 3-year period, facilitates the sense of community that characterizes relationships between children and adults. Teachers as learners The teacher is considered a co-learner and collaborator with the child and not just an instructor. Teachers are encouraged to facilitate the child's learning by planning activities and lessons based on the child's interests, asking questions to further understanding, and actively engaging in the activities alongside the child instead of sitting back and observing the child's learning.

Teachers' long-term commitment to enhancing their understanding of children is at the root of the Reggio Emilia approach. Their resistance to the American use of the term model to describe their program reflects the continuing evolution of their ideas and practices. They compensate for the meager preservice training of Italian early childhood teachers by providing extensive staff development opportunities, with goals determined by the teachers themselves. Teacher autonomy is evident in the absence of teacher manuals, curriculum guides, or achievement tests.

The lack of externally imposed mandates is joined by the imperative that teachers become skilled observers of children in order to inform their curriculum planning and implementation. When working on projects with the child, the teacher can also expand the child's learning by collecting data such as photographs, notes, videos, and conversations that can be reviewed at a later time. The role of the environment The organization of the physical environment is crucial to Reggio Emilia's early childhood program and is often referred to as the child's "third teacher."

Major aims in the planning of new spaces and the remodeling of old ones include the integration of each classroom with the rest of the school and the school with the surrounding community. The importance of the environment lies in the belief that children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through environments that support complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships between people, the world of experience, ideas, and the many ways of expressing ideas. The preschools tend to be filled with indoor plants and vines and awash with natural light.

Classrooms are open to a central piazza, kitchens are open to view, and access to the surrounding community is assured through wall-sized windows, courtyards, and doors to the outside of each classroom. Long-term projects as vehicles for learning The curriculum is characterized by many features advocated by contemporary research on young children, including real-life problem-solving among peers, with numerous opportunities for creative thinking and exploration. Teachers often work on projects with small groups of children while the rest of the class engages in a wide variety of self-selected activities typical of preschool classrooms.

The projects that teachers and children engage in are different in a number of ways from those that characterize American teachers' conceptions of the unit or thematic studies. The topic of investigation may derive directly from teacher observations of children's spontaneous play and exploration. Project topics are also selected on the basis of an academic curiosity or social concern on the part of teachers or parents or serendipitous events that direct the attention of the children and teachers. Reggio teachers place a high value on their ability to improvise and respond to children's predisposition to enjoy the unexpected.

Regardless of their origins, successful projects are those that generate a sufficient amount of interest and uncertainty to provoke children's creative thinking and problem-solving and are open to different avenues of exploration. Because curriculum decisions are based on developmental and sociocultural concerns, small groups of children of varying abilities and interests, including those with special needs, work together on projects. Projects begin with teachers observing and questioning children about the topic of interest.

Based on children's responses, teachers introduce materials, questions, and opportunities that provoke children to explore the topic further. While some of these teacher provocations are anticipated, projects often move in unanticipated directions as a result of problems children identify. Therefore, curriculum planning and implementation revolve around open-ended and often long-term projects that are based on the reciprocal nature of the teacher-directed and child-initiated activity. All of the topics of interest are given by the children.

Within the project approach, children are given opportunities to make connections between prior and new knowledge while engaging in authentic tasks. A hundred languages of children As children proceed in an investigation, generating and testing their hypotheses, they are encouraged to depict their understanding through one of many symbolic languages, including drawing, sculpture, dramatic play, and writing. They work together toward the resolution of problems that arise. Teachers facilitate and then observe debates regarding the extent to which a child's drawing or another form of representation lives up to the expressed intent.

Revision of drawings and ideas is encouraged, and teachers allow children to repeat activities and modify each other's work with the collective aim of better understanding the topic. Teachers foster children's involvement in the processes of exploration and evaluation, acknowledging the importance of their evolving products as vehicles for exchange. (Source: www. reggiokids. com and Children and Young Peoples Workforce, Meggitt, Kamen, Bruce, Grenier) Maria Montessori began her work as a doctor in one of the poorest areas of Rome at the beginning of the 1900s.

She worked with children with learning difficulties. She spends hours observing children. This is one of the strengths of her work. Her conclusion, which is now supported by modern research that children pass through sensitive periods of development when they are particularly receptive to particular areas of learning. She saw children as active learners, just like Piaget. Here is a summary of Montessori's ideas: She put together a structured teaching program, which she based on her observations of children with learning difficulties. The work of an educator called Seguin was also used by Maria Montessori.

He had given manual dexterity exercises to children with physical disabilities. He did this as he believed that if they could learn to use their hands, they would then be able to get a job later on in life. She designed a set of didactic materials, as she called them, which encouraged children to use their hands. She stressed the importance that children should work alone. She thought that this would help them become independent learners. For Montessori, the highest point of a child's learning is what she likes to call the polarization of attention.

Montessori didn't see the point in the play and didn't encourage children's own ideas until they had worked through her graded learning sequences. Montessori has had more impact and influence on private schools than on the maintained sector of education. Common Core The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the children's workforce - often referred to as the Common Core - sets out the basic skills and knowledge needed by people whose work (paid or voluntary) brings them into regular contact with children, young people, and families. It supports integrated working by contributing to the use of a common language.

The skills and knowledge included in the Common Core have been divided into six key areas: Effective communication and encouragement with children, young people, and families. Children and young people development. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child. Supporting transitions Multi-agency working Sharing information It aims to promote quality, respect diversity, and challenge stereotypes, helping to improve the life chances of all children and young people. Also, providing more effective and integrated services. At the same time, it acknowledges the rights of children and young people and the role of parents, carers, and families. 

Early years frameworks emphasize a personal and individual approach to learning and development because valuing children's individuality, ideas, and feelings is an important aspect of development. It is necessary to meet the universal needs of all children; these are physical and biological needs such as food, drink, and shelter, which are essential to survival.

There are also psychological needs such as love, affection, secure and stable relationships, friendships, intellectual stimulation, and independence. These are essential to maintain the individual's quality of life. A child's needs vary from child to child as each child is an individual, and not two are the same. It can be difficult to meet the needs of children in childcare settings when they are grouped together according to age. Some children will have developmental needs which are in line with the expected "norm" for their chronological age, whereas others will have needs that are characteristic of much older or younger children.

Once recognized, the child's needs can then be met. When doing this, it is important to consider each child's age, physical maturity, intellectual abilities, emotional development, social skills, past experiences, and relationships.

Here is a list of barriers to participation for parents and carers: Concerns about the welfare, development, and learning of a child; Parents becoming angry or upset; Parents and carers with other priorities Parents and carers having prejudicial attitudes Differences in rules and expectations

This can be overcome by talking to the parent or carer in a way that shows concern for the child and not criticizing the parent or carer. The conversation can also be held in a private and confidential space, with a clear focus on the child's best interests. This can be overcome by staying calm and talking calmly, offering somewhere private to talk.

As carers are individuals, there is no one way to have a partnership with parents/carers; there needs to be a whole range of ways for parents to access partnerships in order for them to find the one that is most suitable for them.

These may include diaries to communicate between home and the setting, meetings within the setting, workshops run by the setting, open days, and parents' evenings. 

Multi-agency working helps the different services and professionals to join together to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. This means that practitioners can work with parents and carers to help them access and organize the different services and provisions that may be helpful to them.

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Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and Peculiarities. (2016, Dec 20). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/early-years-foundation-stage-framework-and-peculiarities/

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