Early Years Learning Framework


The Early Years Learning Framework, together with the National Quality Standard, forms the policies around early childhood education in Australia.

Development of EYLF

The EYLF has been developed collaboratively by the Australian and State and Territory Governments with substantial input from the early childhood sector and early childhood academics. The Framework has incorporated feedback from an extensive consultation process, including two national symposiums, national public consultation forums, focus groups, an online forum and case-study trials.
The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program, was developed for the Australian Government by Early Childhood Australia in 2010, to provide ongoing professional support to services as they engage in the EYLF implementation process. The program has recently been updated and expanded from the Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program to the National Quality Standard Professional Learning Program. The NQS PLP has all the features of the EYLF PLP, along with a new focus to assist services to meet the National Quality Standard.

Description

The EYLF consists of three parts, that outlines the world that educators in Australia should shape around children:
  1. Principles, the first part, are goals for the care, e.g. "Secure, respectful and relationships";
  2. Practices are guidelines for how to achieve the goals set out in the principles, the document EYLF document includes several hands-on examples;
  3. Outcomes is a list of 5 overall goals, each with 2-5 sub-goals. Each of those sub-goals has a list of things that the child could have done to meet the overall goal, serving as an easy reference for teachers :