The Cedars Neighbourhood Nursery

• The EYFS will be the stage your child at when attending the nursery between birth and the age of five. The EYFS carries on until the end of the Reception year at primary school.
• Children do best when parents and professionals work together.  It is important to remember that you know more about your own child than anyone else. (please refer to working in partnership with parents)
• Your child's Keyworker will be asking you about your child and sharing information with you regularly about your child’s progress towards the Devon Learning Journey.
• Sharing photographs, observations, displays and video will hep you to understand what your child is doing at the nursery playing with their peers.  This will help you to notice how well they are developing and learning.
• Partnership is important as the part you play in their learning and the choices you make will make a difference to their future.

 What is the EYFS?

• The EYFS is a stage of children’s development from birth to the end of their first (Reception) year in school.
• The EYFS Framework describes how early years practitioners should work with children and their families to support their development and learning.
• It describes how your child should be kept safe and cared for and how all concerned can make sure that your child achieves the most that they can in their earliest years of life.
• It is based on four important principles.

 What are the EYFS principles?
Theme: A Unique Child Principle: Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Theme: Positive Relationships Principle: Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person. Theme: Enabling Environments Principle: The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.
Theme: Learning And Development Principle: Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development are equally important and interconnected. Each Principle applies to all children from birth. Each Principle is supported by four commitments that describe how the Principle can be put into practice.

They are all explained in more depth on the Early Years Foundation Stage website; http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eyfs/site/index.htm Why are the years from birth to five so special? The years from birth to five see the greatest growth and learning for all children.

• good health;
• to be happy;
• to feel safe;
• to be successful.

Early learning is the key to your child’s future and families make the greatest difference at this stage.  What can parents and carers do? Parents and carers are their children’s first teachers. When they are with you learning can happen at any time and anywhere, for example through:

• being generous with praise and cuddles;
• reading things together;
• playing games, singing nursery rhymes;
• talking about what you can see
• in the park or on the street;
• counting the stairs as you go upand down