Learning and Development within the Early Years Foundation Stage
As an early year’s practitioner, it is essential to support the learning and development of every child in your care, working closely with parents and carers.
You play a key role in guiding children’s learning, helping them acquire vital skills that will support their future success. By recognising each child’s unique interests and developmental stage, you can create meaningful and engaging experiences tailored to their individual needs.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework identifies seven key areas of learning, which are all interconnected and equally important in shaping a well-rounded curriculum:
Prime areas
These form the foundation for children's development:
- communication and language
- personal, social and emotional development
- physical development
Specific areas
These build upon the prime areas and help strengthen essential skills and knowledge:
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the World
- expressive arts and design
Play is central to children's development. It allows them to explore, experiment, build relationships, and think creatively.
Through purposeful play and thoughtful planning, you can nurture each child’s growth across all seven areas, preparing them for lifelong learning.
The educational programmes outlined in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provide the essential framework for your curriculum, which you are required to follow.
However, the curriculum itself should be designed by you, tailored to meet the specific needs of the children in your setting. It will be unique to your environment and community.
You are responsible for deciding:
- what you want children to learn
- the types of activities you will offer
- how your setting will support and enrich their learning experiences
A key part of this process is identifying the skills, knowledge, and experiences children bring with them when they start. This is known as cultural capital - the foundational knowledge that helps children become educated and engaged citizens. Your curriculum should aim to enhance and broaden these experiences for all children.
To plan and deliver an effective curriculum, it’s helpful to consider the three ‘I’s used by Ofsted:
Intent
What do you want children to learn? This includes the design, scope, and relevance of your curriculum.
Implementation
How will you deliver the curriculum? This involves your teaching strategies, the activities you choose, and how you respond to children’s interests and needs.
Impact
What difference is your curriculum making? This focuses on whether children are gaining the knowledge and skills they need to progress and succeed in future learning.
You can access further information to Get help to improve your curriculum planning (Gov.uk).
The ways in which a child engages with other people and their environment underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to be motivated to learn.
The 3 characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:
- Playing and Exploring - Children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’. This involves curiosity, trying new activities, and showing a willingness to take risks in learning.
- Active Learning - Children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements. This includes persistence, motivation, and celebrating success.
- Creating and Thinking Critically - Children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things. This encourages problem-solving, decision-making, and reflective thinking.
The characteristics describe behaviours children use in order to learn and what you need to enable to teach successfully. Your practice should be adapted to meet children’s individual learning styles.
Our 'Talking about the characteristics of effective learning' support tool is available by request - please email [email protected].
The following non-statutory documents provide guidance and examples of how to support the characteristics of effective teaching and learning:
The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) are the level of development children should be expected to have achieved by the end of the EYFS. You should not use these as a curriculum.
In early years your focus should remain on the educational programmes you offer to children to give breadth and depth of your curriculum. The ELGs are there to support teachers to assess children’s capabilities in readiness for year one.
Last updated 04 September 2025