EYFS Community

Welcome to our community

This community is led by Rohan Allen Head Teacher at Rebecca Cheetham Nursery School and Children’s Centre. He champions student and staff wellbeing, cultivating calm, mindful learning environments. Passionate about elevating early years education in Newham and beyond, Rohan aims to use this network as a platform to support settings to develop exceptional practice and world-class pedagogy, ensuring every child receives the absolute best start to their educational journey.

Who is this suitable for?

• Head Teachers, Senior Leaders, Early Years Leads

How does it work?

This group is led by leaders and practitioners with significant expertise in Early Years and aims to share effective practice between maintained nursery schools, schools with EYFS and other suitable settings. Our aim is to support all Newham children getting the best start in life through highly effective and aspirational early years provision.

What does it involve?

Members of this group will be able to attend three meetings, one per term.

Members of this community can access a range of materials to support this group, including access to training videos, articles and other resources 

We will be facilitating the training and provide support for the OMEP Early Childhood Sustainable Citizenship Bronze Award - https://www.omep.org.uk/esc/

Cost
This group is free for member schools and is only available to members of Newham Learning.

To sign up for this community and receive updates, please visit: https://forms.gle/xKANWmVe42M9hec47 

Please note: that this link does not sign you up to meetings - to do that, you will need to visit the link in the network section below.

• Guidance: Early years foundation stage statutory framework (DfE, 2025)

• Guidance: Birth to 5 matters (Early Years Coalition, 2021)

• Guidance: Development matters (DfE, 2023)

• Research Report: Strong foundations in the first years of school (Ofsted, 2024)

• Research Report: Best start in life: a research review for early years (Ofsted, 2022)

• Research Report: Bold beginnings: The Reception curriculum in a sample of good and outstanding primary schools (Ofsted, 2017)

• Guidance Report: Improving Communication, Language and Literacy in the Early Years (EEF, 2018)

• Guide: A beginner’s Guide To Anti-Racism (Tapestry, 2022)

• Blog: Using picture books to promote high-quality conversations in maths; the ShREC Approach – Fliss James (ELRS, 2023)

• Video: Strong Foundations 1 - Why early education is so important (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 2 - A curriculum by design not chance (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 3 - The importance of language development (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 4 - Inspecting nursery provision in schools (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 5 - SEND (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 6 - Early reading (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 7 - Early writing matters (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 8 - Early mathematics (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 9 - Physical development (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: Strong Foundations 10 - Foundational knowledge and older pupils (Ofsted, Jan 2026)

• Video: The prime areas of learning and development in the EYFS - refresher (Ofsted, Apr 2022)

• Video: Child development and the curriculum (Ofsted, Apr 2022)

• Video: Evaluating the impact of the curriculum (Ofsted, Apr 2022)

• Video: The importance of recent research on child development (Ofsted, Apr 2022)

• Video: Making it as easy as possible for children to learn (Ofsted, Apr 2022)

• Video: Evaluating impact of provision with a focus on vulnerable children (Ofsted, Apr 2022)

• Video: Putting EYFS Curriculum into Practice (Newham EY Conf, 2023)

• Video: Observing young children (Froebel Trust, 2022)

• Video: The relationship between stress and concentration in children (UEL, 2021)

• Video: Emotion Regulation in the Early Years (ELRS)

• Video: Tales Toolkit: unlocking the power of storytelling (ELRS)

• Video: Autistic play: A neurodiversity-affirming approach (ELRS)

• Video: How children develop executive functions in the early years (ELRS)

• Video: Building strong foundations for early mathematical skills (ELRS)

• Podcast: Getting it right from the start (Ofsted, 2025)

• Podcast: The best start in life: early years and Ofsted’s strategy (Ofsted, 2023)

• Podcast: Best start in life part 2: Ofsted’s early years research review series (Ofsted, 2023)

• Podcast: Evidence into Action: Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED) in the early years (EEF, 2023)

(coming soon)

Guidance Documents

• Putting Evidence to Work (Implementation Guidance) (EEF, 2024)

Videos

• A schools' guide to Implementation - Animation (EEF, 2024)

• Newham Learning: Implementation (Newham Learning, 2022)

Templates

• Action plan template (pdf)

• Action plan template (docx)

• Case study template (pdf)

• Case study template (pptx)

• Arzu Yeter, St Luke's CE - 'Curiosity approach'

(coming soon)