Communication, Language and Literacy
This area of learning has twenty early learning
goals organised into six strands. The goals that comprise each of the
strands are shown below. Be aware that the goals indicate what children
are expected to be able to do at the end of The Early
Years Foundation Stage. The curriculum also includes ‘stepping stones’
which suggest learning and skills that children may achieve as they
progress to the Early Learning Goals. For further information visit the
QCA website.
Language for communication
Interact with others, negotiating plans and
activities and taking turns in conversation;
Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily
turn to it in their play and learning;
Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard by
relevant comments, questions or actions;
Listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs and other music,
rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems;
Extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words;
Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and show
awareness of the listener for example by their use of conventions such
as greetings, ‘'please'’ and ‘thank you’.
Language for thinking
Use language to imagine and recreate roles and
experiences;
Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings
and events
Linking sounds and letters
Hear and say initial and final sounds in words,
and short vowel sounds within words;
Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet;
Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make
phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words.
Reading
Explore and experiment with sounds, words and
texts;
Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns
of stories;
Read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences
independently
Know that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to
right and top to bottom
Show an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main
character, sequence of events and openings, and how information can be
found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why
and how.
Writing
Use their phonic knowledge to write simple
regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex
words;
Attempt writing for different purposes, using features of different
forms, such as lists, stories and instructions;
Write their own names and other things such as labels and captions and
begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation.
Handwriting
Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form
recognisable letters, most of which are formed correctly.
Click here to return to the Early Learning Page or use the links
below to see the other areas of learning in The Early Years Foundation
stage.
