RE and the Early Years Foundation Stage

The EYFS sets the standard for learning, development and care for children from birth to 5 years. While the statutory requirement for RE does not extend to children under compulsory school age, it can form a valuable part of the educational experience of children in the EYFS. The principles and practice of EYFS offer good opportunities for RE.

Key Principles underpinning the EYFS:

• Every child is a competent learner from birth
• Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships
• The environment plays a key role in extending children’s development and learning
• Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of learning are equally important and interconnected.

Key themes translate the key principles into practice:

A unique child        
RE supports this by:

• developing a sense of identity and belonging
• providing opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development
• encouraging children to use their imagination and inquisitiveness to develop their appreciation and wonder of the world.

Positive relationships
RE supports this by:

• developing sensitivity to others, particularly those of different cultures and religions.

Enabling environments
RE supports this when the environment provides opportunities to nurture and extend children’s emotional and spiritual wellbeing through:

• exemplifying positive attitudes to difference
• providing resources that combat prejudice and opportunities to encounter the unfamiliar
• encountering different places of worship
• exploring books and visual displays of special times and festivals
• interacting with sacred artefacts and people of faith
• providing a place that encourages quiet times for reflection.

Learning and development
RE supports this by helping children develop:

• an understanding of right and wrong
• an awareness of different beliefs about God
• an awareness of different religious practices, traditions and celebrations
• a religious vocabulary.

The EYFS is made up of 6 interconnected areas of Learning and Development of equal importance.

Practitioners in our region have selected 4 of the 6 areas of development and learning from the EYFS (indicated in colour below) that best correspond with knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes in RE. They have exemplified the guidance with real case studies and suggestions for good practice.

In order to support practitioners in recognising where to include religious education in the EYFS curriculum, these resources have been written in the style of the national EYFS materials. The authors of this agreed syllabus acknowledge that some material has been taken directly from Development Matters in order to clarify the place of religious education.

• Creative Development
• Being creative          
• Communication, Language and Literacy
• Language for Communication
• Language for Thinking
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Communities
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Self-confidence and Self-esteem
• Making Relationships
  
• Sense of Community
• Physical Development
• Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Assessing RE

Practitioners should collect evidence through observation, learning journeys and photo stories. They should record moments when children demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, emotional, social, creative and language development as they respond to different experiences.

Understanding World Religions in Early Years practice by Jennie Lindon (Childcare Topic Books) - Hodder Education (1999)