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The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a term defined in Section 39 of the British government's Childcare Act 2006.〔Childcare Act 2006 (online ) (pdf )〕 The EYFS comprises a set of ''Welfare Requirements'' and a set of ''Learning and Development Requirements'',〔EYFS Learning and Development requirements (online ) (pdf )〕 which must be followed by providers of care for children below 5 years old – the age of compulsory education in the United Kingdom. The Welfare and Learning and Development requirements are not specified in the Act but in separate Orders. The legislation took effect from September 2008. The Welfare requirements apply to the whole of the UK, but the Learning and Development requirements apply only in England. All childcare providers, including childminders, nurseries, kindergartens and pre-school classes, are obliged to register under the Childcare Act in order to operate legally. To become and remain registered they must comply with the Welfare requirements, and with the L&D requirements for settings in England (except where exempted). The Learning and Development requirements (applicable in England only) are unusual in principle in imposing compulsory educational targets # for children below the age of compulsory education, and # on providers outside the state system and not receiving state funding. == Learning and Development requirements controversy == The L&D targets are controversial in not being generally accepted by experts in child development and education as being appropriate for this age group.〔(Times 08/02/2008: "England young 'among most tested'" ) and (AFP 08/02/2008: "Primary schools exert unnecessary pressure on students: report" ) on reports of the Primary Review〕〔(Times 28 February 2008: "Children 'too young for school at 4'" ) on a report of the Primary Review〕〔(Telegraph 26 February 2008: "Under-fives curriculum 'will harm children'" ) Steve Biddulph on EYFS〕 They include literacy requirements that 5 year olds should: * readily use written language in their play and learning * use phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words * show an understanding of how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how * begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation There are similar levels of requirements for numeracy. There is a body of professional opinion that attempting to push under-5s into early literacy is ineffective〔(Guardian 28 August 2007: "Doubts over progress in early learning" )〕 or even counterproductive,〔〔(BBC News 22 November 2007: "UK children 'reading too early'" )〕 possibly even producing reading difficulties in some children through the experience of early failure,〔(Guardian 22 November 2007: "Under-sevens 'too young to learn to read'" )〕 and other problems〔(Times 23 January 2008: "Problem caused by pushing them too much, too young" )〕 including ADHD.〔(TES 01/02/2008: "Playing with their minds" )〕 It is reported that schools in Scandinavian and other countries,〔(BBC News 28 November 2007: "England falls in reading league" )〕 and Steiner schools,〔 where children start school at 6 or 7 years old, produce better academic results. Apart from the question of whether the L&D targets are appropriate for the age group, there is controversy over the prescriptive nature of the curriculum,〔(Guardian 15 November 2005: "Toddler curriculum criticised by European education expert" )〕 burdensome nature of the assessments of children they demand〔(Guardian 14 March 2007: "Is your baby playing with its toes yet? If not the government wants to know why" )〕 and stress inflicted upon young children by the curriculum〔 and assessment (as with SATs to which older children are subjected).〔(BBC News 12/10/2007: "Primary children 'suffer stress'" )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Early Years Foundation Stage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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