Nursery World - Birth to 5 Matters EYFS guidance to launch this month

‘Birth to 5 Matters – Guidance by the sector, for the sector’ is on track to be launched later this month after the final sector consultation on the non-statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) guidance resulted in a ‘resounding endorsement’ of the document.

'Since children develop in their own ways, we wanted to support practitioners to think about children where they are rather than by their age,' said Nancy Stewart, who has led on developing the Birth to Five Matters guidance

‘We are delighted to see the positive, enthusiastic response that has greeted the guidance,’ said Nancy Stewart, project lead for the Early Years Coalition. ‘At the same time practitioners have taken the opportunity to say what they want and need, and we have over 800 specific comments to take into account as we develop the final version.’

Responses to the draft include:

The latest consultation did find that there was some uncertainty about how the ‘Birth to 5 Matters’ document will sit alongside the statutory EYFS and other guidance, and concern that there could be confusion among practitioners.

In response to this the Early Years Coalition stated, ‘We will send clear messages in all our communications about how Birth to 5 Matters supports practitioners to implement all aspects of the statutory EYFS and is not in conflict with it. We will explain the reasons for the structure used, and assure practitioners that both Ofsted and DfE confirm that they may choose to use any non-statutory guidance which they find useful.’

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