Early Years Foundation Stage and Year 1 Belonging – Guidance for Schools

The Early Years Service and the Educational Psychology Service are developing a new model to support the inclusion of children with complex emotional needs in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Year 1. Deep dives into the factors contributing to the exclusion of children at the beginning of their school careers lead us to believe that focussing our work with the youngest children in school will have long term benefits for both the children and schools. We aim to build schools and families capacity to support children, taking a holistic approach, and maximising the impact of the available support. The guidance is attached to this bulletin.

The Educational Psychology Service are providing this support in the limited time available as part of the core work offer. This replaces the previous core work offer from the EPS.

Two approaches that are being used as part of this work are Emotion Coaching and Video Interaction Guidance (VIG). There is some further information and links about these interventions below.