Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to introduce wildlife education to the early years curriculum.

The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. The EYFS includes an area of learning on ‘Understanding the World’, which requires settings to foster children’s understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. Across the early years curriculum, practitioners can teach children about wildlife and the natural environment in a range of ways, for example through books, activities and play and by visiting parks and other local areas.

At the end of the EYFS, children are assessed on their level of development, against the Early Learning Goals (ELGs). The ‘Understanding the World’ ELGs include exploring the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants, knowing some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments.