The Curriculum Made Easy

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the curriculum used here in the UK for children aged 0-5 years.

It is made up of four themes and is formulated in the equation below.

‘A Unique Child’ refers to understanding children are individuals.

‘Positive relationships’ refers to us adults who contribute to the child’s learning.

‘Enabling environments’ is the theme that highlights the need for exciting resources, gardens, and classrooms for the children to play and learn.

‘Learning and development’ is the combination of a Unique Child, Positive Relationships, and Enabling Environment to allow the child to learn.

There are seven learning and developing areas, which are:

1. Personal, Social and Emotional (PSE): Making relationships, Self-confidence and self-awareness, Managing feelings and behaviour.
2. Physical Development (PD): Support their body movements, potty training and hygiene
3. Communication and Listening (CL): Listening and attention, Understanding and Speaking
4. Literacy (L): Reading and writing
5. Mathematics (M): Numbers, shapes, space and measurements
6. Understanding of the World (UW): People and communities, The world and technology
7. Expressive Arts and Design (EAD): Exploring and using media and materials, Being imaginative

‘Characteristics of effective learning’ is used to help understand the ways the child is learning. It is made up of:

1. Playing and exploring: understanding the child’s engagement.
2. Active learning: understanding their motivations, concentration, and enjoyment with their play.
3. Creating and thinking critically: Making choices, exploring their thoughts and problem solve.

These characteristics help the adult understand what excites the child and use the information to help them learn through play and support their own choices.