Our dedicated preschool – the Acacia Early Learning Centre (ELC) – has qualified teachers and stimulating indoor and outdoor facilities. We have two classes Nursery (3 to 4 years) and Reception (4 to 5 years). We follow the UK’s Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress.
Four guiding principles shape practice in the EYFS. These are:
- every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured;
- children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships;
- children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers; and
- children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.
There are seven areas of learning and development that shape educational programmes in the EYFS. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.
- communication and language;
- physical development;
- personal, social and emotional development;
- literacy;
- mathematics;
- understanding the world; and
- expressive arts and design.
The ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner. The EYFS calls these ways of learning the “characteristics of effective learning”.
- playing and exploring
- active learning
- creating and thinking critically
The characteristics of effective learning run through and underpin all seven areas of learning and development, representing processes rather than outcomes – focusing on how children learn.
For full details of our curriculum please download our Preschool Curriculum Framework.
If you would like to find out more about how your child is learning and developing during their first five years, in relation to the EYFS, please download this booklet “What to Expect, When”. Children develop more rapidly during the first five years of their lives than at any other time. This booklet has been written to help you as a parent know what to expect during these vitally important years by focusing on the seven areas of learning and development which are covered in the EYFS.
