The changes to the Government’s non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS are minor. There have been no major changes to the curriculum guidance under the seven areas of learning and practitioners are being reassured that they will not need to alter any planning they have already done based on the September 2020 version.
Changes include:
- Updates to the Introduction and Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning sections to ensure the wording is aligned with the aims of the reforms and reflects the most recent research and evidence.
- Updated links, making minor tweaks to wording for clarification purposes.
- Ensuring the document is accessible, inclusive, and easier to navigate. This includes a new design, layout and colour coding.
Dr Julian Grenier, who developed the document in consultation with professionals, said, ‘Development Matters was originally road-tested with over 200 early years practitioners, who gave extensive feedback. Their input changed the document for the better.
‘Since then, over 3,000 schools have been “Early Adopters” of the revised EYFS. They have been overwhelmingly positive about the revised Development Matters, but their experience has highlighted some minor areas for improvement in the document. I would like to thank all those teachers and early years educators for being so generous in giving this time and sharing their expertise.’
More information
The revised version of Development Matters, July 2021, is available to download as a PDF here
