Early Years Foundation Stage
Early Learning Goals
The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) are the goals or targets children are expected to achieve at the end of their Reception year. They will be working towards these goals throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage. There are 17 ELGs across all the areas of learning as shown below.
Early Learning Goals
In the moment planning
EYFS Curriculum Information
Each day we are unsure of where the day will go, or exactly what learning will happen resulting in a sense of excitement and anticipation throughout the day. Children’s interests are very much ‘in the moment’ and this is why here in EYFS we very much teach in the moment and our planning is often spontaneous.
Planning in the moment is all about capturing the moment for children to progress based on what the children are already deeply involved in. From this we are able to see the ‘teachable moment’ from the child’s perspective and know when to intervene and when to stand back and observe. It is all about capturing the moment of engagement and running with it to make sure the children progress.
The teachable moment
From the teachable moment the child feels valued, interesting, important, capable and able to learn as well as gaining knowledge, skills and understanding therefore making progress in one or even several areas of the Early Years Curriculum. We are able to gain a good understanding of the child’s knowledge, skills, attitude, understanding and progress.
Planning on paper
This way of working means that most of our planning is in the moment (there is little forward planning as we are following the child’s lead) We record what we have done to help the children progress each day through their ‘next steps’ and these are recorded in the children’s observations. We still have adult led activities daily and plan for things like Phonics, Maths, or topics like cooking or seasonal activities using weekly plans.
Observations
All observations made of the children are based on quality interactions between children or children and us teachers or record ‘wow moments’ when a child does something new for the first time. They will include any teaching that has taken place or progress that a child or group of children have made. All of our practitioners are responsible for highlighting progress in observations. Emphasis is highly placed on using ‘I wonder...’ statements e.g., ‘I wonder if...’, ‘I wonder what...’, ‘I wonder how...’. We feel that this approach to questioning is a lot less pressurising and allows the children to open up more readily. Parents are also asked to share any observations of ‘wow moments’ of their child(ren) at home by sharing them with us on Tapestry.