EYFS

Aspects of Art: Textiles

Apr 25th, 2013
Here is the fourth in our series on Art in the Early Years. This time the focus is on Textiles. Fabric is a big part of children’s lives. They wear it, they sleep under it and they sit on it. The familiarity of textiles is what makes them so much fun to explore with young children, encouraging them to look closer, ask questions and use fabrics in new and unusual ways. Some children might be interested in the textures of fabrics, brocades and lace. Others might want to investigate patterns and colour on fabric. Or children might enjoy manipulating textiles, weaving and stitching and knotting. Any textile project in the early years will become embellished with the children’s interests as they learn more about the fabric around them.
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Aspects of Art: Printing

Feb 13th, 2013
We continue our series on Art in the early years with a closer look at printing.
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Aspects of Art: Painting

Nov 8th, 2012
Paint is such a versatile and energetic medium for children to explore. It can be thick or runny, pale or bright. It can be layered up with other things and it can be dabbed, spread, brushed, flicked or squelched. This article is the third in a series about art in the early years setting and looks at ways to introduce exciting painting experiences to young children.
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Aspects of Art: Drawing (Available to visitors)

Sep 13th, 2012
This is the second in a series of articles about the different aspects of art in the early years. Here we look at ways to approach drawing with young children.
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Characteristics of Effective Learning: Creating and Thinking Critically

Aug 3rd, 2012
In the third and final article on the characteristics of effective learning, Martine Horvath outlines the essential components of critical thinking and how we can support children to develop their creativity.
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Characteristics of Effective Learning: Playing and Exploring

Jul 7th, 2012
In a series of three articles examining the characteristics of effective learning in the revised EYFS framework, Martine Horvath encourages us to consider how to support children's skills in independent learning. Including a link to an inspiring short film, she discusses how we can sensitively and skillfully support child-initiated play.
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Characteristics of Effective Learning: Active Learning

Jul 3rd, 2012
What is "Active Learning"? The High Scope approach defines it helpfully as ‘having direct and immediate experiences and deriving meaning from them through reflection’. In this way children can better make sense of their world. It’s in the doing that we can make connections, apply our learning and get results in cognitive and practical harmony. Children act on their natural desire to explore as they ask and search for answers to questions about materials, events, people experiences and ideas that arouse their curiosity. They solve problems that stand in the way of their goals and they generate strategies which help them to overcome barriers and challenges threatening to stop them in their tracks.

Active learning includes a variety of teaching methods such as small group discussion, cooperative learning, role play, hands-on projects, and sensitive practitioner-led open ended questioning. Practitioners should advocate active learning techniques which include the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic aspects of learning. By allowing children to be involved in their own learning practitioners are encouraging them to take greater responsibility for their own education. In the active learning enabling environment, a practitioner’s role is to talk less and facilitate more......
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Aspects of Art

Jun 8th, 2012
Art is a rich and magical area of learning. It can open children’s eyes to the world around them and offer them new and exciting ways of seeing, thinking and doing. But this doesn’t just happen; presenting children with the opportunity to use clay, paint or charcoal is not enough. Adults working in the early years need to think creatively themselves, explore ideas and resources with the children and celebrate the artistic process.This is a new series on Art in the Early Years, with activity ideas for six different aspects of art – drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, textiles and collage. It begins with a brief look at how we should approach art with young children.
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Feeling positively positive about the revised Early Years Foundation Stage?

Jun 4th, 2012
Martine Horvath identifies the significant features of the revised EYFS. She states that "It’s important to stress right from the very beginning that all our energies should be channelled into celebrating the positives, continuing to be the confident and positive practitioners that we are, interpreting this revised framework in the spirit that it was intended and acknowledging our own responsibility to use our professional autonomy to keep the children and key principles at the very heart of what we are about; in everything we do, reflect on and work towards, so that we do not unintentionally suffocate best practice with negativity". Read on for inspiration...
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Building an accurate picture: Evidencing the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and the moderation process.

Mar 8th, 2012
Q: How much evidence do I need? It’s a perennial question and one that is asked on an almost daily basis as moderation visits are underway.

Assessment in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFSP) is based very firmly on the use of observation. Watching, listening and making notes on what we learn about children’s learning from their activities is the bedrock of our practice and observation is routinely used to inform day to day formative assessments. Ultimately, however, these observations form the basis of our summative judgements and are an essential element in establishing the accuracy of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) data through the process of moderation. Here, Kate Cahill explains how to engage in effective observational techniques to support the completion of the EYFS profile.
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Looking back: How do we give young children a sense of the past?

May 24th, 2011
As adults, we tend to think about time in terms of chronology. Time is linear and ordered. The past stretches into the distance in one direction, the future into the other, and the present sits in the middle. We understand that the past can be recent (yesterday) or long ago (1066). But even as adults our concept of time is subjective – our idea of what was a long time ago or what age a person could be described as 'old' is dependent partly on our own age and experience. Young children are only just beginning to fathom the way we order time.

This article looks at how early years practitioners can introduce young children to the past. It examines how children perceive time and discusses simple ways to explore 'a long time ago' with children.
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Assessment for Learning in the EYFS

Mar 3rd, 2011
Jonathan Glazzard, from the University of Huddersfield, provides a broad overview of the key principles of assessment for learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. He outlines the purposes of assessment and describes key approaches for collecting evidence of children’s achievements. The article also identifies approaches for facilitating the involvement of both children and parents or carers within the assessment process.
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Assessment, Progression and Attainment in the EYFS

Nov 5th, 2010
Life on the Foundation Stage Forum takes on its own seasonal phases and autumn is no exception. As the new academic year commences there are always queries, particularly from school-based practitioners, on how to gather and interpret the progress data required alongside the observational assessment practices required in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. So what do we need to consider and how do we make best use of the assessment information we gather?
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EYFS Survey (Available to visitors)

Nov 3rd, 2010
The FSF asked members (and visitors) to fill out a questionnaire on the EYFS in the autumn of 2010. This is a summary and the raw results of that survey.
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Ofsted Inspection Reports for Childminders (Part 2)

Jun 15th, 2010
A selection of Ofsted inspectors' judgements on the quality and standards of childminders' early years provision and outcomes for children.
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The Practitioner as an Explorer: Effective Observation Techniques

Jun 14th, 2010
Observation is at the heart of effective provision, and it ensures that we keep the child at the centre of our practice. This article discusses various tools and techniques practitioners need to carry out effective observation and to support learning within the EYFS.
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Ofsted Inspection Reports for Childminders (Part 1) (Available to visitors)

May 27th, 2010
What have recent OFSTED reports focused upon? In a two-part article we summarize over fifty childminders' reports from April and May 2010. How does your setting measure up?
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Music, Personal, Social and Emotional Development......and You!

Jan 18th, 2010
Alison Harmer explores musical experiences in the early years in relation to Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
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Motivational Planning- a retrospective discussion

Oct 16th, 2009
Sue Ridgway takes us back to 2006, when her setting decided to discard a topic-based approach in favour of developing children's skills through following their interests. In this new article, she describes the impact this change has had on her provision.
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Storytelling

Jul 11th, 2009
Following on from Juliet Mickelburgh's articles on promoting reading and using stories to plan stimulating activities, she now turns her attention to how young children can be involved in telling their own stories.
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Beginning with Books (Available to visitors)

May 15th, 2009
This article introduces a new series of planning ideas that use a big book as the starting point for a variety of experiences within the Areas of Learning and Development. 'Beginning with Books' examines early reading skills and attitudes towards how children learn to read, as well as how to prepare for planning with a focus book.
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Biscuit Box Banter

Jan 21st, 2009
Martine Horvath presents some fun ideas to get children talking, and to help them develop their speech and language skills.
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Using Music to Support Foundation Stage Learning

Nov 18th, 2008
Mary E. Maunder presents musical activities to support young children's development and learning across the six areas
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Thinking Creatively about Creative Development

Nov 7th, 2008
Martine Horvath's belief that all children are born creative is one that many practitioners share. In this article she describes what creativity means in the early years and how we can support this crucial area of learning and development.
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Play and Exploration

Oct 6th, 2008
The importance of play and of practitioners who are "playful"
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Enabling Environments (Available to visitors)

Aug 13th, 2008
How can we ensure that the environments we provide will extend and support children's development and learning?
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A Unique Child

Aug 7th, 2008
What does the EYFS mean by the term "a unique child", and how can we support each child's individual development?
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Recording children's learning and development in the EYFS

Jun 26th, 2008
Devising a straightforward method of tracking children's learning and development in the EYFS.
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Positive Relationships

May 21st, 2008
Martine Horvath discusses critical aspects of positive relationships and how to promote them in your setting.
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Cheerful or Cheerless Childminding in the Face of EYFS Challenges?

Apr 16th, 2008
Advice on how childminders can embrace the EYFS. Don't worry, be happy!
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The Early Years Foundation Stage is like an Onion!

Mar 20th, 2008
Find out why the EYFS is more like an onion than a tomato...
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Learning about Shape and Space

Mar 18th, 2008
The perceived need to demonstrate children's development in the Early Years can put pressure on practitioners to move to formal methods of education too quickly. This article explains how learning can be achieved and recorded instead through practical activities.
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Motivational Planning

Jan 1st, 2008
A description of how one setting moved away from topic planning towards a more child-centred approach.
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