EYFS Best Practice: All about ... UW: People & Communities

A great deal of excitement was generated about the revision of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and its implementation in September 2012. With the reduction in the early learning goals from 69 to 17, and the focus on ensuring that children are 'school ready', the breadth and content of each of the areas of learning was reduced. This permitted all of us to breathe a sigh of relief because a reduction in the curriculum would allow practitioners more time to focus on how children learn and on how we can improve our interactions with them to promote learning.

However, we need to ask whether children have lost out in any way from the reorganisation of any of the previous six areas of learning to the three Prime and the additional four Specific areas. In particular, has the slimlining of 'Knowledge and Understanding of the World', which became 'Understanding the World', meant that we have made less effort in the past two years to teach children essential knowledge and skills? These are questions that we need to pose about our ongoing practice and thereby review the quality of experiences and teaching that we offer children.