Welcome
The Early Childhood Forum (ECF), brings together national organisations and professional associations in the early childhood sector for all young children from birth to seven. ECF exists to promote inclusion, challenge inequalities, debate issues, celebrate differences and develop consensus to champion high quality experiences for young children and their families.
News & Events
Sue Gifford's Talk
The Early Childhood Maths Group – how do we develop confidence, competence and enjoyment in maths for all children?
The Early Childhood Maths Group brings together expert enthusiasts including practitioners and researchers. We provide guidance based on research and practice to various bodies and produce materials to support enjoyable maths education for all children from birth to seven. I will discuss some of our current work, including informal assessment videos for number and pattern, the Spatial Reasoning Toolkit, picture book lists and family maths postcards. Suggestions will be welcome!
Dr Sue Gifford, chair of the Early Childhood Maths Group, is a specialist in early years maths, working with practitioners and a range of organisations. Previously a London reception teacher, she taught at Roehampton University and researched early years maths and children with maths difficulties. She has contributed to a range of guidance documents and programs for early years practitioners. She is the author of Teaching mathematics 3 to 5: developing learning in the Foundation Stage, and co-authored The power of pattern: patterning in the early years. Her current research interests include spatial reasoning and links between patterning and music.
Sue Gifford Feb 2024
Children at the Table
ECF is pleased to be supporting this NCB initiative.
Foundation Years Updates
The Department for Education has published two updated guidance documents for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
EYFS Profile 2024 handbook
The EYFS Profile is an important statutory assessment of children's development at the end of the EYFS. We have published the updated EYFS Profile 2024 handbook to support teachers and early years practitioners to complete the EYFS Profile assessment in the 2023/24 academic year in line with statutory requirements.
The EYFS Profile must be completed for each child and submitted to the local authority no later than 30 June 2024. Local authorities must submit EYFS Profile data to DfE by 31 July 2024.
EYFS guidance on exemptions
We have also updated the EYFS guidance on exemptions for early years providers and individual children. The updated guidance simplifies, streamlines and clarifies the previous guidance, making it easier to follow and implement. There have been no changes to the EYFS exemptions policy or processes.
Copy, paste and follow this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-handbook
ECF does Twitter
ECF has renewed its social media links for the benefit of members and other EY professionals. The new Twitter handle is:
@ECFBirthto7
