EYFS 2012 – Find out what it means for childminders!

March 28th, 2012

With the EYFS 2012 statutory framework just published, we look at what the new regulations mean for childminders in England

This is the forth in our series of blogs on the development of the Revised EYFS, or as we now call it, EYFS 2012.

For those who have read our blogs on the proposed changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework published in July 2011, we are pleased to say that there are only a few differences between the proposals and the actual statutory framework document – You will recognise some of what is written below from the earlier blogs but please still read the whole blog as there are some new requirements that are significant.

This blog discusses what we believe are the main differences between EYFS 2008 and EYFS 2012. It also outlines our thoughts on what the changes mean for childminders in England. As the document was only published yesterday these are our initial thoughts and we will write update blogs in the next few weeks as more comes to light. We have attempted to strike a balance between informing you of all the changes and not scaring you away with a massive blog. We hope we have the balance right – any feedback on this would be welcome.

 What is EYFS 2012?

Currently registered childminders in England are required to operate within the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage 2008 (the EYFS and what we are now referring to as EYFS 2008). In September 2012 a Revised EYFS framework will replace the original EYFS framework. We are referring to this as EYFS 2012 in the same way as other professional bodies. If you have time, it is worth reading the entire EYFS 2012 framework that was published yesterday (27th march 2012), there may be something applicable to you that we haven’t picked up.

The EYFS 2012 will come into force in England from September 2012, before then all childminders must follow the EYFS 2008 framework, however it is good to get prepared for the introduction of EYFS 2012.

What are the main changes between EYFS 2008 and EYFS 2012?

The EYFS 2008 and EYFS 2012 statutory framework documents contain many styling and wording changes that are too frequent to detail here. In this blog we are focusing on the regulatory changes that will affect childminders. To make it easier to read we have split the changes into separate headings that mirror the headings in the EYFS 2012 framework document.

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Final thoughts

Overall we feel that the EYFS 2012 is a welcome development and will help to ensure the childcare sector continues to focus on helping children to thrive. We are yet to be convinced that it will lead to a significant reduction in paperwork but the reduction from 69 early learning goals to just 17 should make the observation, assessment and planning cycle simpler.

We would love to know what you think!

We will now get started developing resources to help your transition to EYFS 2012 and for use in your setting after September. These will be available for all members to download as soon as they have been created. We will also blog about the resources and any other information that becomes available.

Thanks,

 

 

We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs are just our interpretation of the regulations and are for general information purposes only. We recommend you read the EYFS 2012 Statutory Framework produced by The Department of Education. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information.


2 Responses to EYFS 2012 – Find out what it means for childminders!

  1. Lynnette Wood says:

    Hi Amanda,
    I feel your diagram headed ’17 Early learning goals split by the 7 areas of Learning & Development’ is misleading as what you have in fact referred to are the aspects; not the early learning goals.

    • amanda says:

      Hi Lynnette

      Thank you very much for your comment. It is good to know that people are reading the blog.

      I can see where you are coming from. In the document ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ (the non-statutory guidance), page 5 contains a table with the 7 areas of learning & development and next to this are the ‘Aspects’ which are indeed the 17 points mentioned in the diagram in the blog as the 17 early learning goals.

      These 17 aspects are used from page 7 of the ‘Statutory Framework for the EYFS’ published (the main document that the blog discusses), within the section headed ‘The early learning goals’. This section states the 17 early learning goals, and the title of each early learning goal is one of the 17 aspects and those that I have mentioned in the diagram. So the Aspects in the Development Matters document are used as the titles of the 13 early learning goals described in the Statutory Framework.

      Perhaps I needed to be more specific and state that the 17 points mentioned in the diagram are ‘The 17 Aspects which are the titles used for the 17 early learning goals in the EYFS 2012 framework’. For clarity I will add a note on this to the EYFS 2012 resources we are developing.

      Thanks again. This type of discussion can really help to clarify understanding of the new childcare regulations for everyone.

      Amanda

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