How we incorporate EYFS in a Montessori setting
What is the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)?
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It 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 through school and life.
There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in early years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.
Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
These three prime areas are:
- Communication and Language Development: involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment, to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves, and to speak and listen in different situations. We encourage the children to develop in this area with resources such as small world people, a wide range of books, puppets, story sacks, poems and songs.
- Physical Development: involves providing opportunities for children to be active and to develop their coordination, control and movement. Children are encouraged to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food. The children’s physical development is improved with resources such as the balancing beam, stilts, threading activities, bikes, playdough and bean bags.
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development: involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others, to form positive relationships and respect for others, to nurture social skills and learn how to manage their feelings, to understand appropriate behaviour in groups, and to have confidence in their own abilities. The children are able to develop their social skills by playing in groups, using emotion puppets, books about moving house and other topics as well as many role modelling games with teachers.
Providers must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.
The specific areas are:
- Literacy: involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials including books, poems, and other written materials to ignite their interest.
- Mathematics: involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems, and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures. The children are exposed to number lines, wooden shapes, sorting bears and an array of objects for counting.
- Understanding The World: involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment. We support the children’s development in this area with resources such as wooden train sets, cardboard kitchen, baby dolls, hair dressers, doctor set, CD players, children’s microphone and leap pads.
- Expressive Arts and Design: involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology. The children are exposed to materials such as chalkboards, an array of construction toys, scarves for interpretive dance, and guided art activities.
The full EYFS ‘Development Matters’ programme details may be viewed via the following link https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974907/EYFS_framework_-_March_2021.pdf
How ‘Wimbledon Village Montessori School’ incorporates the EYFS in a Montessori Setting
We use the Montessori methodology and materials to engage the students at a practical level specified in the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stages). We assess the competence of the children engaged in the practical Montessori materials to determine the level of development specified in the EYFS. This is how we integrate the EYFS development framework in our Montessori setting.
Below is a link for a document that links EYFS with Montessori
http://www.montessori.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/99837/EYFS_Guide_2013.pdf
Pamphlets and workshops are held in WVMS that explain in greater detail how EYFS Development Matters, is incorporated into our Montessori Setting.
The Learning Journey
Throughout the child’s time at WVMS, a Learning Journey is made for them. The Learning Journey is an accurate representation of the child’s learning and development. The children add their thoughts and ideas with their key worker by adding in mark making, writing and comments about their pictures. Our learning journeys illustrate the child’s development in all aspects including the Montessori environment and EYFS. The learning journey also bridges the gap between home and nursery, parents are involved in contributing towards their child’s learning journey, encouraging a positive relationship between home and nursery.