Teaching & Learning

Early Years Foundation Stage

As the first years in a child’s life, the Early Years are fundamental to future learning and development.

At this crucial time, we strongly believe in supporting the whole child, setting them on the path to future health, happiness and success.

EYFS

Strong Foundations in the First Years of School

Literacy

The Writing Framework: Leaders' Digest

Products & Services

Sharing your commitment to give children the best possible start in life, our team will work with your school to enrich your provision and embed best practice in EYFS, KS2 and beyond.

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Learning Environment

The environment is the third teacher, full of possibilities and potential. Through the power of play, exploration, and problem-solving, an effective and thoughtful environment can play a large part in shaping children’s early learning experience.

Our specialists will support you to review your current learning environment, both indoors and outdoors, ensuring there is high-quality provision and resourcing to support children develop within the characteristics of effective learning (CoEL) and all 7 Areas of Learning.

Working together, we will observe children’s play behaviours and use this information to plan next steps. By ensuring the needs of all learners are met, we will help them to continue making exceptional progress built on accurate assessments.

Role of the Adult

As emphasised in the EYFS Framework, adults play a crucial role in supporting the holistic development of children, creating opportunities for learning, play and exploration.

With an in-depth knowledge of early child development, our consultants will work with your team to consider the role of adults in the environment; review timetables; and share strategies about how to create effective interactions with children.

Tailoring support to reflect the needs of your school, we also offer staff training and 1-2-1 coaching sessions, supporting your team by observing high-quality interactions and sharing evidence-based solutions.

Supporting Transitions

Working alongside parents and other professionals, we will help you achieve a smooth and successful transition for your pupils, supporting them with the next step in the learning journey.

With creative and practical solutions, we can support you to manage initial and ongoing transitions within EYFS. Our consultants will work collaboratively with the team to create a timeline for transition, putting children and their needs at the heart of the process.

We can also support you with the transition from EYFS to being ‘school-ready’ in Year 1. We will work with you to plan the environment and embed best practice, allowing you to bridge the gap whilst continuing the principles of effective early learning.

Learning Environments in KS1 and Beyond

As emphasised in the EYFS Framework, adults play a crucial role in supporting the holistic development of children, creating opportunities for learning, play and exploration.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

Effective learning behaviours are fundamental to early years education, giving children the foundations to flourish as critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

With expertise in child development, our consultants will support your team by observing the characteristics of effective learning in your setting. We will work with you to build on your practice and provision, creating further opportunities for children to learn, explore, create and grow.

Working with senior leaders, we can build a culture of effective learning across the whole school, delivering bespoke training and guidance to help you embed this approach in every classroom.

Parental Engagement

Parental partnerships are key to a successful early years’ experience, supporting the holistic development of the child and improving their life chances.

We can support you to empower parents to play an active part in their child’s learning journey, continuing all the good work you do in school to support pupils’ wellbeing and academic progress.

Our EYFS specialists will review your current approaches to parental engagement, sharing strategies to ensure parents feel involved and fully informed, equipped with the tools they need to support their child’s education.

Oracy Award

Oracy Award - Products and Services

Oracy is the cornerstone to effective learning and communication. It is central to developing key life skills as well as to support the development of knowledge and personal wellbeing. Indeed, in the EYFS, the DfE state that “The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development.” Yet, research shows that there is a declining trend in outcomes for Communication and Language.

Children in the EYFS deserve the very best start for Oracy. Our approach to supporting oracy development from the earliest years of school, is focused on our research-based framework which encompasses the three strands of oral communication: learning to talk; talking to learn and learning about talk.

Together, our in-house Literacy experts and Speech and Language Therapists can offer specialist support to develop best practice in oracy across your school. By establishing a bespoke oracy-rich curriculum whose language, expectations and provision is best designed to enable all learners, we can support you to develop your oracy provision so that it will improve pupils’ outcomes at school and beyond.

For more information, please visit our Oracy Award page.

Rethinking KS1: Supporting Child Development Beyond the Early Years

We believe that firm foundations shouldn’t end in the Early Years. Our Rethinking KS1 programme has been developed to help schools reimagine learning for 5–7-year-olds, ensuring that teaching continues to reflect the developmental needs of young children. Designed to be flexible, practical, and rooted in research, these offers support schools at every stage of their journey—whether you’re exploring initial changes or embedding long-term approaches.

We explore how play and continuous provision can be maintained into KS1 while still meeting the requirements of the National Curriculum. The programme supports schools to revisit their intent, reflect on implementation, and evaluate impact—ensuring a joined-up and strategic approach.

Playful Schools: Whole-School Support for Embedding Playful Learning

Playful Schools is a whole-school development offer for settings looking to put play, creativity and child-led learning at the heart of their curriculum. Whether working across a school, federation or multi academy trust we help schools to review their vision, develop inclusive learning environments and shape a culture that values curiosity and wellbeing.

Through leadership coaching, staff training and bespoke consultancy, Playful Schools offers a sustainable approach to curriculum and pedagogy that reflects how children develop, learn and thrive. Tailored to your context, we can support you too spark new thinking or to embed long-term change across your setting.

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Why choose One Education for EYFS?

Our dedicated team consists of EYFS practitioners, senior leaders, moderators and quality assurers for Local Authorities. Putting children first in everything we do, we will help you to enhance the early years experience, laying the foundations for lifelong learning and future success.

Following the Early Years training, I came away enthused to write our EYFS key priorities for the year ahead. From information I received during the session, I was able to provide a series of workshops to staff on child development conversations. The profile of our fantastic work in EYFS has been raised this year, driven by the confidence that this training course instilled in myself as EYFS leader.  The team at One Education has an enthusiasm for EYFS which is infectious and I wholeheartedly recommend the training session and their EYFS support.

Sharon Owen, Assistant Headteacher and EYFS LeadIrk Valley Community School

As a result of the consultancy from One Education and Jo, we’ve seen big changes within our environments in Early Years. We have clearly identified areas, use of language, challenges, resources, and ensuring that provision inside and outside is meeting the needs of the children, having an impact on their learning, growth and development.

Eileen Anderson, HeadteacherSaviour CE Primary School

Jo delivered an engaging and thought-provoking talk on the importance of play. Her insight and personal experience into how play shapes development and learning was inspiring. I left the session with a renewed sense of excitement about the role of play in my setting and practice and even my home life.

Diane Mitchell-PlummerChildcare Professional

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Early Years Foundation Stage