Statutory guidance – what we have to teach

The EYFS sets out the ‘Educational Programme’ for PSED:

Educational Programme : Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development. Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world. Strong, warm and supportive  relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others. Children should be supported to manage emotions, develop a positive sense of self, set themselves simple goals, have confidence in their own abilities, to persist and wait for what they want and direct attention as necessary. Through adult modelling and guidance, they will learn how to look after their bodies, including healthy eating, and manage personal needs independently. Through supported interaction with other children, they learn how to make good friendships, co-operate and resolve conflicts peaceably. These attributes will provide a secure platform from which children can achieve at school and in later life.

Our PSED Curriculum

This Prime area of the EYFS is a fundamental part of the children’s learning journey at Whitegate.

The majority of our children become part of our Whitegate Family at the age of two.

The world of a two year old as they start Nursery school is all about them and their parent or main care giver.

We aim to support our two year olds to gain trust in a key adult at Nursery as this will help them to manage the separation from their parent for short periods and will gradually support the children to accept comfort from familiar adults (keyperson). This can then build into the child showing an awareness of other familiar children around them.

Each child will be supported to play alongside other children as key adults model turn taking and playful relationships.

Key staff will enable each child to access their class environment through toys and resources that interest and feel familiar to them. Each child will be supported to develop an awareness of simple consistent routines and expectations in the environment.

When children leave Whitegate to make their transition into Primary school, we intend for them to be confident, resilient and skilful in their abilities to make positive relationships with both adults and other children.

We want them to be able to express their feelings verbally and to be able to negotiate with others and find compromises.

We want them to have the confidence to make their own choices but also to accept that other children might make different choices. We want them to recognise their own strengths; to take pride in their achievements; to share them with adults, their peers and value praise.

We want our children to be able to manage their feelings, with our help, when things go wrong and to have the drive to try again or in a different way. We want them to support their friends with their struggles too.

We intend for our children to be adaptable and understand the expectations of them in different situations such as working with a peer on a self-chosen challenge, during a group learning activity or whole class story.

We have identified the key learning in PSED based upon our knowledge of child development. We can identify whether a child is on track in their development and what their next steps should be using our learning sequences.