Getting ready for the revised Early Years Foundation Stage framework - Blog - CPD Learning & Professional Development Tips at Laser Short Courses: Getting ready for the revised Early Years Foundation Stage framework

Getting ready for the revised Early Years Foundation Stage framework

Thursday 3rd June, 2021

Our short courses have been reviewed and updated (where needed) to reflect the revised statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, which will be effective from 1st September 2021. The new Development Matters and Birth to Five Matters have also been updated or added to relevant courses.



We decided to change the documents and references in our childcare courses before September so early years practitioners have the summer to familiarise themselves with the new guidance, and nursery leaders and managers can start planning how to implement any necessary changes for the 2021-2022 academic year and beyond.



A summary of changes to the framework



Early Learning Goals (ELGs) – The Prime and Specific areas of the EYFS stay the same, but ELGs have been changed to make them clearer and more specific.


Educational programmes – Changes have been made to the wording in the educational programmes, they are longer, go into more depth, and contain examples of activities that practitioners can do with children. There is a new focus on early language and extending vocabulary across all 7 areas of learning and development.


Safeguarding and welfare section – There is a new requirement to promote the good oral health of children


Age 2 progress check – This is the only statutory assessment that practitioners working with pre-reception children will need to carry out


Assessment at the end of the EYFS (the EYFS Profile) – The ‘exceeding’ judgement has been removed from EYFS Profile criteria. The statutory duty for Local Authority’s to moderate Early Years Foundation Stage Profile data in 25% of local schools each year has been removed. Schools will still be required to submit the EYFS Profile data to their local authority, and this data will still be collected nationally.


Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) has been launched at the same time as the revised EYFS framework. The Department for Education describes RBA as ‘a new way of measuring the progress primary schools make with their pupils’ and it will become statutory from September 2021. Read more here.


Early Education (the British Association for Early Childhood Education) have produced a really useful annotated version of the Framework that Early Adopter schools have been using, highlighting the changes from the previous version.


Development Matters


The non-statutory curriculum guidance ‘Development Matters’ has also been re-published, and has been backed by the UK Government. Many practitioners may remember an earlier version of this document, published in 2012. The main changes are:


- It’s shorter, about two-thirds of the length of the previous version


- There’s more room for professional judgement and practitioners are encouraged to use their knowledge and experience to track children’s progress


- The age bands have been simplified from 6 to 3:


1. Birth to 3


2. 3 and 4-year-olds


3. Children in reception


Birth to 5 Matters


‘Birth to 5 Matters’, an alternative non-statutory guidance has been updated to reflect recent research, meet the needs of practitioners and children today, respond to current issues in society, and lay a strong foundation for the future. This document was developed by the Early Years Coalition and can be found here.