Early Years Centre

What is the Foundation Stage?

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets standards to enable early years providers to reflect the rich and personalised experience that many parents give their children at home. Like parents, the staff should deliver individualised learning and care that enhances the development of the children in their care and gives those children the best possible start in life. Every child should be supported individually to make progress at their own pace and children who need extra support to fulfil their potential should receive special consideration.

The EYFS principles which guide the work of all practitioners are grouped into four distinct but complementary themes:

• A Unique Child
• Positive Relationships
• Enabling Environments
• Learning and Development

These themes are then each broken down into four commitments describing how the principles can be put into practice. These are as follows:

A Unique Child

• Child development
• Inclusive practice
• Keeping safe
• Health and well-being

Positive Relationships

• Respecting each other
• Parents as partners
• Supporting learning
• Key person

Enabling Environments

• Observations, assessments and planning
• Supporting every child
• The learning environment
• The wider context

Learning and Development

• Play and exploration
• Active learning
• Creativity and critical thinking
• Areas of learning and development.

How does the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) work at Danesfield Manor Early Years Centre?

The EYFS is followed throughout all rooms within the nursery. Each room has the six areas of learning defined within them, and these areas of learning are as follows:

• Personal, social and emotional
• Communication, language and literacy
• Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Physical development
• Creative development

The practitioners complete observations on the children throughout the week to see where they are in their development and to see what their interests are at this time. They then use these observations to plan the activities that the children will be participating in throughout the week; these activities will then move the children onto their next development stage.

Each child has his or her own Individual Learning record; the practitioners will highlight each development stage in this learning record once the child has reached it so that we have a working document of the child’s abilities.

Key Person

Each child is issued with a key person once they start at the nursery; this practitioner will work very closely with both the parent and child to make sure that both feel comfortable and supported within the nursery.

It is the key person’s responsibility to complete the observations and to make sure the individual learning record is kept up to date.

Where does my child start?

At Danesfield Manor Early Years Centre children can join from the age of 2 years when they become a member of our Nursery room (subject to availability). The ratio of staff to pupils at this age is 1 adult to 4 children. We take every measure to ensure children build successful relationships with our staff across the nursery; this really helps them as they move on to the next room and stage of development.Activities in this room are suited to this age group and resourced accordingly. Children have the opportunity to make use of a free flow area to outside learning opportunities and a range of soft play activities.

Once children turn 3 they are challenged to take on new experiences. Three year olds at Danesfield Manor have two weekly swimming sessions with our qualified coach in our lovely on-site heated indoor swimming pool. In addition our Modern Foreign Languages teacher starts to teach French through a programme of song and role play. To prepare them for school these children are encouraged to attend eight sessions in the summer term.

At 4 our children join the Reception class where they participate in a full week’s programme of foundation stage activities. Our three full-time members of staff work with the children to complete the foundation stage profile ready to go into Key Stage 1 when they are 5!