Best Practice

Changes to early years education from September: Are you ready?

Legislation and guidance Government policy Whole-school issues Reception
The early years is changing. From September, we will have a revised Early Years Foundation Stage framework, updated Development Matters guidance, and full implementation of Reception Baseline Assessment. Neil Henty looks at what we need to know


The government has confirmed that a revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) will come into effect from September 2021 (DfE, 2021b).

This follows the 2018 draft version of the framework and a period of consultation from 2019 which assessed revision to the educational programmes, the Early Learning Goals, the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), and changes designed to promote good oral health under the statutory safeguarding and welfare requirements. The government’s response to the consultation was published last year (DfE, 2020b).

The reformed EYFS makes a number of changes to the current framework, most notably in language, literacy, and numeracy. The government says that it has followed research evidence in revising the framework and that the changes will improve outcomes for all children, while reducing teacher workload “so that teachers can spend more time interacting with children in their care”.

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