The foundation stage, beginning when a child is three, helps children develop the understanding, skills and attitudes that they will need in later life. Effective learning opportunities at the foundation stage require planning and organisation.

All early years settings in England that receive nursery education grant funding are required to plan learning opportunities in line with the foundation stage curriculum.

The foundation stage curriculum is based on a number of principles.
These include:

• providing learning opportunities that reflect the development of young children
• providing learning opportunities that build on what children already know and can do
• ensuring that all children feel included, secure and valued
• removing barriers, so that children with English as an additional language or special educational needs are able to learn. No child should be excluded or disadvantaged because of ethnicity, religion, language, family background, special need, gender or ability
• developing strong partnerships between parents and the early years setting.

Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage

This guidance sets out six areas of learning which form the basis of the foundation stage curriculum. These areas are:

• personal, social and emotional development
• communication, language and literacy
• mathematical development
• knowledge and understanding of the world
• physical development
• creative development.

Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage is intended to help practitioners plan to meet the diverse needs of all children so that most will achieve and some, where appropriate, will go beyond the early learning goals by the end of the foundation stage.

The early learning goals are set out within six areas of learning. Stepping stones show the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes that children need in order to achieve the early learning goals. The guidance gives examples of what children do, which help practitioners to identify significant developments and plan the next steps in children's learning. It also gives examples of what the practitioner needs to do to support and consolidate learning and help children make progress towards the early learning goals.

The foundation stage curriculum offers great flexibility. However, early years practitioners may need to adapt activities in order to meet the particular needs of new arrivals. This section provides guidance on how you might do this.

Useful weblinks

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites

DCSF/QCA: Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage
The guidance is for all practitioners who work with children in the foundation stage, those with management responsibilities in schools and settings and those who support and train practitioners.

Updated pages for 2007-2008
The guidance is intended to help practitioners plan to meet the diverse needs of all children. Guidance is given on:

• aims for the foundation stage
• principles for early years education
• learning and teaching
• planning, provision and assessment.

Pre-School Learning Alliance
This organisation's mission is to help children to succeed, create the childcare that families need and build learning communities. It produces a number of useful publications for early years practitioners.

Save the Children
Home from home: a guidance and resource pack for the welcome and inclusion of refugee children and families in school, Salusbury WORLD/Save the Children, 2004. The materials include detailed guidance on how to develop play opportunities for refugee and asylum seeking children.

Sure Start
Sure Start is part of the government's drive to eradicate child poverty. By involving parents and a range of agencies in initiatives to boost young children's development, it aims to give children in disadvantaged areas a much better start in life.

Sure Start local programmes work with parents-to-be, parents and children to promote the physical, intellectual and social development of babies and young children, particularly those who are disadvantaged, so that they can flourish at home and when they begin school.

Sure Start has produced much useful guidance material for early years practitioners, as well as a foundation stage information pack for parents, available in a number of languages.

Trentham Books
Trentham supports the learning of children whose first language is not English. It has published a number of books that examine equality issues in the early years, including Siraj-Blatchford, I, 2000.

Early Years: laying the foundations for racial equality, The Combating Discrimination: persona dolls in action

Equality in Action: a way forward with Persona Dolls

Unlearning Discrimination in the Early Years

Young Children and Racial Justice: taking action for racial equality in the early years

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