Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to five years. Since it is not so common outside UK, the world is still dubious about it. Even in UK, studies and researches are going on about the standards and settings of EYFS. Since education in the early years is very important in a child’s life, there will be so many questions that have to be answered.

It was in 2008 that EYFS came into effect as a statutory body and in 2010, a group of scholars from the Institute of Education, University of London had conducted a research on ‘Practitioners’ Experience of the Early Years Foundation Stage’. It was a study by gathering views from the practitioners working in all sectors of children’s EYFS. The findings of the research were able to give answers to so many major questions. Here are five common questions that are frequently asked.

How does EYFS influence the daily life of children?

EYFS has a play-based and child-led guidance method. Since children have the upper hand, EYFS has great influence on their lives. It influences many aspects of daily practice. Teachers and parents observe the children and provide them opportunities to perform. Teachers capture each and every development of the children as photographs or other data and share them with the parents. It enables the parents to identify the inborn talents of their kids and they can nourish the skills with proper guidance.

How does EYFS support improvement in care and education offered by practitioners?

According to the EYFS standards, every stage of development of a child has to be noted. It is the child’s development that matters, so the providers have to be very careful and alert. The care and education the providers provide will make the children smart. There will be parental involvement at each stage of a child’s development and that makes the providers more responsible.

What are the obstacles that providers face?

The main obstacle that the providers face is that the people refuse to accept the child-led and play-based format of EYFS. Many people believe that this format is not effective as the previous system. Some believe that with the EYFS standards, no learning takes place.

The other obstacles include need for more trained providers for managing a single classroom since each and every action of all the children should be observed. Also, data collection and sharing of data take lots of time with just one provider in a classroom.

What are the benefits for children?

Children learn a lot before the age of five. If they are given more freedom and proper guidance at that age, it will surely give wonderful results. EYFS gives them timely appreciation and encouragement. It reveals their tastes and skills to parents that help the parents to focus on it in the future studies.

How simple is it to use?

Edsys has introduced EYFS Management Software to help EYFS providers and parents.

• While practicing EYFS, majority of the time is spent on collecting and compiling data and sharing it with the parents. This can be done easily using EYFS Management Software, which also helps in  saving time. Postcards can be created using the photographs and then, sent to the parents.
• Data can be easily shared with this software.
• It can be easily used with Smartphones
• Separate profiles for each child can be made available. Evaluation and grading thus become easier.
• Making of annual reports in PDF format are done easily.
• The pictures taken during the sessions can be posted with comments and grades can also be added to them.