ABSTRACT
In September 2000 the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) produced the Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage-a curriculum to apply to children from the age of three to the end of the reception year (that is, the end of the first year of formal schooling). It sets out to prepare the children to meet the demands of the National Curriculum and does this through a series of early learning goals. These were based on an earlier set of what had been called Desirable Outcomes for Children’s Learning. The Foundation Stage curriculum pre-dates Birth to Three Matters by some years. Birth to Three Matters has been discussed first in this book because it makes more sense to look at requirements chronologically and developmentally.
