Designing and Developing Curriculum in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has been written in response to an increasing need to clarify expectations and the understanding of how to design, develop and then implement the curriculum within Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision.
Working within national guidelines and advice, educators in the EYFS have been consistently challenged to identify what the children they work with will learn and how this will progress and flourish during their time with the establishment. This represents a welcome shift in the need to articulate EYFS practice and an increased professionalism as a result. It also drives the realisation that a responsible curriculum needs to be carefully considered, sequenced, progressed and adapted to the cohort of children it will support. However, this also provided a challenge in how educators manage, articulate and gain confidence with the process this involves.
Polly Sharman from The Education People and Jan Dubiel worked with a group of schools to support the process in depth and examine, reflect on and articulate the process and the thinking involved. The purpose is not to create a template or formula to do this, but to investigate how the process is understood by educators, the decisions and considerations that are necessary, the challenges this poses and what principles can be identified to run through this.
The document is aimed at all EYFS educators and is designed to enable and support them in how to view and consider their own approaches to curriculum design and development. Through this process, they will gain a deep understanding of how this supports effective outcomes for children.
Watch our short video (below) which outlines how Designing and Developing the Curriculum in the EYFS has helped and supported a community primary school and enabled them to create and design their own curriculum and the benefits they have identified.