The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework is designed to support the learning, development, and care of children from birth to five years old. It focuses on three key aspects: intent, implementation, and impact.

Intent

The intent of the EYFS is to provide a high-quality early education that lays a strong foundation for future learning. This involves:

• Creating a safe and nurturing environment where children feel valued and respected.
• Fostering a love of learning through play-based and child-centered activities.
• Promoting the development of key skills across the seven areas of learning: communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design1.

Implementation

Implementation refers to how the curriculum is delivered in practice. This includes:

• Planning and organizing activities that are both adult-led and child-initiated, ensuring a balance that supports individual learning styles and interests.
• Using a variety of teaching methods and resources to engage children and support their development.
• Observing and assessing children’s progress to tailor activities to their needs and interests2.

Impact

The impact of the EYFS is measured by the progress and outcomes achieved by the children. This involves:

• Monitoring and evaluating children’s development to ensure they are meeting the early learning goals.
• Using observations and assessments to inform future planning and support.
• Ensuring children are ready for the next stage of their education, transitioning smoothly into Year 1 with a solid foundation in all areas of learning3.

By focusing on these three aspects, the EYFS aims to provide a comprehensive and effective early education that supports all areas of a child’s development.

Learn more 

1. ndna.org.uk 

2.  cbppschool.co.uk 

3.  saltfordschool.org.uk 

4.  twinkl.co.uk 

5. thelinksprimary.org.uk

Introduction to Cygnets Curriculum

We are inspired by the Forest School, Regio Emilia and few other education approaches when planning and delivering our curriculum

Our Curriculum Intention

Our comprehensive curriculum plan focuses on delivering the Department of Education's early years curriculum goals with a home-from-home touch. It encourages what a parent would like their children to learn in their early years, such as good morals, staying close to nature, developing a love of reading, becoming aware of finances, and valuing music, dance, and creative art's role in maintaining well-being. Our 14 core values define our ‘personal excellence’ and are the backbone of Cygnets, shaping our curriculum and pedagogy, and guiding our behaviours. Our ultimate goal is to prepare our child for lifelong learning and for them to enjoy their early years of learning in a loving, respectful and stimulating environment where they can thrive and achieve best potential.

Our Long-Term Curriculum Plan for Ages 3-4 at Cygnets Childcare is meticulously crafted, drawing from a wealth of knowledge and expertise unique to Cygnets Childcare. We have carefully considered and utilised the following Curriculum Guidance Documents to shape what we want our children to learn.

DfE_Development_Matters_Report_Sep2023.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Birthto5Matters-download.pdf

We would like you to follow the document below at home to understand what to expect in the early years and help enhance your child's development at home. Talk to us if you have any concerns about your child's development at home so we can support you with the graduated response process and put early intervention strategies in place to help your child meet development milestones. We can also use this information to support your child’s transitions, including school transition, to be as smooth as possible. Please refer to our SEND policy for further information.

Revised_What-to-expect-in-the-EYFS-complete-FINAL-16.09-compressed.pdf (foundationyears.org.uk)

At Cygnets Childcare, we deeply value parents' input in shaping their child's early years curriculum. We understand children’s biggest development and future success is based outside the early years, and parent involvement in a child’s development continues all throughout the child's education until they become adults. In fact, 86% to 98% of the words used by each child by the age of three  were derived from their parents’ vocabularies Microsoft Word - The Thirty Million Word Gap - A Summary (wvearlychildhood.org). Our early years curriculum is not just a plan but a collaborative effort we have undertaken with you since our first meeting during your child’s admission. It also prepares you as the parent to continue supporting your child in continuous education. Every little thing matters to your child's development, such as bringing your child to Cygnets on time and keeping attendance levels above 96%, providing adequate changing clothes, sending your child ready to play in weatherproof gear, honest and transparent communication, building a good relationship with the key worker, supporting the practitioner to prepare important reports about your child, or even share child’s home language top tips with the practitioner etc. Our ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum prepares our children for the next stage of their education. We expect all our setting parents to work with us to review, update, and help redesign the curriculum to meet our children's ever-evolving needs, government requirements and the latest advancements in our living place. Your involvement is not just welcomed but crucial, as it directly influences your child's knowledge and life skills in the early years onwards.

·       What do we want our children to learn and why:

Our curriculum journey aims to make our children healthy, thoughtful and hungry enough to be lifelong learners. Our written curriculum guides our long-term plans for children to encounter, explore and learn at Cygnets. Therefore, we aim to be flexible in individualising the curriculum activities to let children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning so the curriculum can be enjoyable and interesting and can meet their growing individual needs and interests as we meet the England curriculum guidance. We believe Cygnets curriculum should balance between adult-led and child-initiated playfulness, both indoors and outdoors, which is challenging and enjoyable for children to take managed risks, learn and remember a happy and engaging childhood so our children develop a positive image about early years education to conform for more formal education at school age, value lifelong friendships and diversity, be inclusive of others and develop a love for endless knowledge absorption and skill gathering.

·       How we help children know more and remember more: We understand that in the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second. Research has shown that children cultivate 85% of their intellect, personality, and skills by age five. We believe in our setting being rooted in their communities, responsive to the full range of diversity of our local families and children, and providing a curriculum that competently weaves together head, heart and hand. We understand every child is unique, and their brain develops at their own pace. Therefore, providing a loving, attentive, and enriching environment is the best way to support their development. Our home-from-home environment provides childcare and education as close as it possibly can get to a natural home environment with loving attachments and we know our care is only second to child's own home.

Children hear about 46 million words before they reach age five. However, they remember, understand and talk words only if they have the opportunity to use them regularly and develop a multi sensory connection to the word. In the process of helping children to remember, Cygnets Childcare recognise the power of stories in teaching and the whole-body experiences in learning. Therefore, Cygnets Practitioners regularly use Story-Telling in structured education to pique children’s curiosity and wonder. Many activities Cygnets offers allow children to explore words in a natural environment where inclusion is promoted. Our written and spontaneous curriculums provide many opportunities for children to experiment with vocabulary in role-play, use their head, heart and hand purposefully and bring those book characters and imagination to real life. We use ‘knowing more and remembering more’ for all areas of learning in the EYFS, such as knowing how to balance on a wheeled toy or when to use the toilet, positive body posture, voice control and look people on the eye when talking and listening and read the non-verbal cues to show active listening, use hand to stroke an animal gently and experience the reaction, plant a seed and see the feel of growth satisfaction, having the freedom and time to think and resolve problems independently and many more similar engagements cygnets children encounter as a child in our home-from-home based environment is just as important as knowing, remembering, and understanding more words or numbers in preparation for future success. Furthermore, such homely childhood experiences help children learn more and strengthen our children's long-term brain memory muscle buildup to retain information during their core brain development stage in early years.

In delivering the Cygnets curriculum, we also focus on implementing strategies that help children's memory stick, such as sequencing, repetition, association, novelty, emotional resonance, mnemonic, testing etc. As Dr Wendy Suzuki, the Neuroscientist, expresses, we understand using these strategies are closely linked to the development of brain functioning and Muscle growth such as the hippocampus, an associative structure that recognises the name’s linked to the face, the emotional resonance is functioning of the Amygdala. Furthermore, sleep helps memory consolidation. Also, positive relationships, listening to music, drawing and painting, and many more therapeutic experiences can prepare the brain to sustain long-term memory and stretch brain plasticity. Active physical exercise and body movements such as dancing, drumming, running, walking and playing in the park using the whole body are central to helping release dopamine and contribute to attention, problem-solving and memory as dopamine helps processing what happen from a whole brain perspective, leaping from left brain to right or right brain to the left. A well-balanced dopamine level helps both physical and mental health. We believe exposing children to good life habits from early stages helps them gradually understand and build their own techniques and strategies to interweave their brains and remember more from early years.    

·       How do we measure this success? We track our children’s progress and share the statutory two-year development progress summary reports, have two pre-planned development review meetings per year per child and share information about children’s progress and involve Cygnets families in their learning journey. We talk to parents during daily handover times to understand child interest at home, how home learning progresses, child interests and well-being. We want to ensure that children’s needs are identified at the earliest stage possible and that the most appropriate support strategies are implemented in partnership with parents. This will enable all our children to progress and realise their individual potential and education sustainability. Cygnets Childcare would follow a clear, graduated framework in partnership with Surrey so that our early years' education setting and multi-agency stakeholders can provide well-coordinated early intervention and support (universal, setting, specialised, or statutory assessment) for our children to reach their full potential socially, emotionally, physically and academically. Please refer to our SEND policy for further information on how Cygnets support your child through the SEND process. In addition, parents can also request support from Surrey SEND support directly if further support requirements exist.