Resources for childminders, nursery leaders and pre-school practitioners

Find links to resources providing support and guidance in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Guidance

You can find guidance and practical support on the Help for Early Years Providers website. These resources are for childminders, nursery leaders and pre-school practitioners.

Find more guidance below on how:

  • communication and language development involves giving children opportunities to:
    • experience a rich language environment
    • develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves
    • speak and listen in a range of situations
  • physical development involves:
    • providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive and to develop their coordination, control, and movement
    • helping children to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food
  • personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to:
    • develop a positive sense of themselves and others
    • form positive relationships and develop respect for others
    • develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings
    • understand appropriate behaviour in groups
    • have confidence in their own abilities
  • literacy development involves:
    • encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write
    • giving children access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest
  • mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in:
    • counting
    • understanding and using numbers
    • calculating simple addition and subtraction problems
    • describing shapes, spaces, and measure
  • understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment
  • expressive arts and design involves:
    • enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials
    • providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology

Communication and language development

Mathematics

Literacy development

Understanding the world

Personal, social and emotional development

Expressive arts and design

Providing food - advice on good practice