Nursery World - Curriculum: Broad minded

It is time to reflect on a broad and balanced early years curriculum, and a revised EYFS should support us to think about what our children need, argues Dr Julian Grenier

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The most important recent event in English early years education was the publication of the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage in 2000. Never before had the Government put so much emphasis on the types of experience that children should have in their early years, and what skills and knowledge they should be learning. Two years later, the National Curriculum was extended to include the Foundation Stage. The early years became, in law, as important as any other phase of education.

Since 2000, there have, of course, been substantial changes to what is now known as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). As we prepare ourselves for yet another revision, perhaps one of the most eye-catching points to consider is this: originally, the whole notion of the phase was led by thinking about the curriculum. Yet the most recent version of the Statutory Framework has just a one mention of the word ‘curriculum’ in a footnote. So, is this a case of a vanishing curriculum?

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