EYLF Outcomes: Realising Early Learning

When it comes to your child’s education the EYLF Learning Outcomes are the building blocks of your child’s growth and learning journey.

In the same way that you need to know the ingredients of a cake to bake it, knowing what the learning outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework aim to achieve helps you see how your child is developing, from their social interactions to their critical thinking to their sense of wellbeing.

Understanding these outcomes form part of their education also means you can better support your child’s ongoing learning at home. By focusing on children’s learning through quality teaching and benchmarks like the National Quality Standard and the Early Years Learning Framework, you can have more meaningful conversations about your child’s progress and work together more effectively to support their needs.

About the Early Years Learning Framework

The Early Years Learning Framework, or EYLF, is a key component of the National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care. It emphasises the importance of children’s learning and development through principles, practices, and educator strategies. 

It outlines best practices to support and enhance children’s learning, taking a play-based learning approach to their literacy, numeracy, and overall academic pursuits, from birth to five years of age.

• Learn more about the Early Years Learning Framework here

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What are Learning Outcomes?

The EYLF Learning Outcomes are used by educators to guide their programming and practice, ensuring quality children’s learning through frameworks like the National Quality Standards and the Early Years Learning Framework.

They recognise children learn in many ways and at their own pace, and their learning can be far from predictable as they engage with more complex ideas and activities, building skills for various situations.

In supporting the Being, Belonging and Becoming pillars, the strength of these outcomes is their adaptability to the unique nature of each child, taking into account their past experiences, cultural background, languages spoken, capabilities, emotional well-being, and learning preferences.

• What is Belonging, Being and Becoming?

Our educators tailor their approach to every child with these five outcomes in mind, focusing on the key areas of learning and development for young children. Ensuring your child’s education helps them become confident and involved learners and that they thrive in a supportive and enriching environment.

But understanding the EYLF, across all of its Principles, Practices and Outcomes, isn’t just about ticking boxes. It’s about being an active participant in a child’s educational journey and helping them grow in every way, ready to take on the world!

• What are the EYLF Principles?
• What are the EYLF Practices?

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Outcome 1. Children Have a Strong Sense of Identity

• Children feel safe, secure and supported
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and agency
• Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth
• Children learn to interact with others with care, empathy and respect

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Learning Outcome 1 is about building self and making sure your child feels safe, secure and supported. This is the foundation for everything else. When children feel safe and supported they are more likely to take those first steps towards independence and resilience. Figuratively, or literally, a child will build up the courage to climb the jungle gym if they know someone is there to help them if they fall.

As children develop their autonomy they also start to better understand their strengths, and how to work with others. A group building a block tower are learning to share ideas, take turns and solve problems together. This kind of collaborative play helps them develop self-worth and feel confident in their identity. Our educators are always amazed at how far a little bit of encouragement and a lot of patience will go in helping our little villagers discover their capabilities and feel proud of themselves.

These early interactions are essential for teaching children to care for others. Daily at Grace Village, you’ll see children comforting a friend who is upset, or helping each other clean up after an activity. These moments teach empathy and respect. And by learning to interact with kindness and understanding, children build the social skills they will need for life, becoming well-rounded confident people who can navigate the world as kind and thoughtful adults.

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Outcome 2: Children Are Connected With And Contribute to Their World

• Children develop a sense of connectedness to groups and communities and an understanding of their reciprocal rights and responsibilities as active and informed citizens
• Children respond to diversity with respect
• Children become aware of fairness
• Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

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Learning Outcome 2 focuses on helping children develop a sense of connection to the groups and communities they are a part of, and to understand the responsibilities they have within them. It involves responding to diversity with respect, becoming aware of fairness, and becoming socially responsible in and by, showing respect for the environment.

A child’s sense of being, belonging and becoming is shaped by their relationships and communities. From birth, they live and learn with their families, their local communities and their peers. Positive, respectful relationships in these environments help develop their identity, interests, knowledge, and skills, preparing them to contribute actively to their world.

At Grace Village, helping children connect with their world means teaching them about community and their place in it. For example, a class project where children plant a garden, water it, watch it grow and then share the harvest with the kitchen is a hands-on way to show them their actions count and they matter.

Beyond our garden, children learn about different cultures and ways of life. They might celebrate holidays from around the world or read stories about kids in other countries. That helps them see the world from other people’s perspectives and feel empathy. By contributing to their immediate community – like setting the table or cleaning up – children learn responsibility and how it feels to help.

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Outcome 3: Children Have a Strong Sense of Wellbeing

• Children become strong in their social, emotional and mental wellbeing
• Children become strong in their physical learning and wellbeing
• Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health and personal safety

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EYLF Learning Outcome 3 is about ensuring children have a strong sense of well-being in their social, emotional and physical health. When a child feels safe and supported they are more likely to make friends and engage in learning activities with more confidence. And it’s through group activities and play that children learn to express their emotions, and understand the emotions of others, helping them develop empathy and cooperation.

Physical well-being is another important part of Outcome 3. Children become stronger both physically and mentally through activities that develop motor skills, coordination and healthy habits. We see the results of our focus on outdoor play frequently – a little villager who has just completed an obstacle course feels proud and happy and brings plenty of smiles back to their friends!

The framework also encourages children to build strategies towards being mindful of their mental health. For example, during a storytelling session, an educator may introduce a scenario where children must practice personal safety and self-care. In turn, this helps children learn to identify and communicate their needs, like asking for help when they are tired or uncomfortable.

And by integrating these lessons into our everyday activities here at Grace Village, your child will gradually build their awareness of, and skills in, managing their wellbeing, and the importance it will play throughout their lives.

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Outcome 4: Children Are Confident and Involved Learners

• Children develop a growth mindset and learning dispositions such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination, and reflexivity.
• Children develop a range of learning and thinking skills and processes such as problem-solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching, and investigating.
• Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another.
• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, places, technologies, and natural and processed materials.

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In Learning Outcome 4 we focus on creating confident and involved learners, encouraging a growth mindset, curiosity, cooperation, confidence, and creativity. Think of a child who gets excited when they figure out how to build a tower with blocks. That’s their curiosity and enthusiasm in action.

Our educators look for these moments to support and encourage these traits – getting children to ask questions, explore their interests, and celebrate their successes no matter how small.

Outcome 4 also helps children develop their learning and thinking skills, such as problem-solving, inquiry, and experimentation. For example, imagine a group of children trying to work out how to make a ball roll faster down a ramp. Through trial and error, they learn to hypothesise, test ideas, and investigate and improve their methods. These activities help children understand cause and effect and develop the critical thinking skills they will use for the rest of their lives.

Children also learn to transfer and adapt their learning from one context to another, and to self-resource their learning by connecting with people, places, technologies, and materials. A child who has learned about plants in our garden and then uses that knowledge to care for a plant at home. Children become more adaptable and resourceful by linking what they learn in different settings.

To this end, the outdoor learning spaces at Grace Village have a variety of materials and environments designed to inspire children to explore and discover so their learning is meaningful and fun.

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Outcome 5: Children Are Effective Communicators

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
• Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media
• Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
• Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking

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Learning Outcome 5 is about creating effective communicators and highlights the importance of children interacting verbally and non-verbally with those around them. When your child shares a story about their weekend during group time, they’re learning to convey messages, express emotions, and understand social cues. By encouraging these interactions, our educators help develop the communication skills your child needs for school and beyond.

Another key part of Outcome 5 is ensuring children encounter different forms of media, from picture books to digital stories, to help them gain meaning and make connections. For example, when your child loves a particular book and reuses the characters and plot in their play, this shows their comprehension at work, along with creativity and critical thinking. Reading aloud, discussing stories, and providing diverse texts that capture children’s interests and backgrounds are crucial parts of this outcome.

Children are encouraged to understand how symbols and patterns work and to use digital technologies to access information and express their ideas. Imagine your child using a tablet to explore a nature app, identifying different animals and recording their observations. This helps them grasp how digital literacy and technology can be tools for learning.

By integrating these elements into their daily activities, Grace Village’s little villagers learn the skills to navigate, communicate, and make sense of the world around them.

Linking Activities to Outcomes

One of the biggest jobs for early childhood educators is linking activities and their observations to the framework’s outcomes to support children’s learning and development. This ensures their planning and practice are aligned with the framework so a child’s learning, development and wellbeing are supported. By linking these activities to the EYLF learning outcomes, we are recognising that early childhood is a critical period of development.

Understanding the Outcomes

Interpreting the EYLF Outcomes means understanding what each outcome looks like in practice and how it supports children’s learning. Educators observe children’s learning and development and see how it relates to the outcomes. Version 2 of the approved learning frameworks has clarified and explained the principles, practices and outcomes. This version has strengthened the connections to the National Quality Standards (NQS) in areas like transitions, sustainability, theoretical approaches, critical reflection, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of being, knowing and doing and inclusion.

• Grace Village Early Learning: Exceeding the National Quality Standard

Planning Activities

When planning activities, educators should consider which Outcomes they are addressing. For example, an activity where children work together to solve a problem can be linked to Outcome 4 (Children are confident and involved learners) and Outcome 5 (Children are effective communicators). Remember a single activity can often address multiple outcomes as children’s learning is holistic and interconnected. Planned activities support children’s learning by recognising early childhood as a critical period of development.

Recording Observations

When observing children, educators consider which of the framework’s outcomes are being demonstrated. This means noting down and documenting examples of children’s learning, including their language, interactions, play, and learning.

These observations inform future planning and provide evidence of children’s learning and development. Reflective practice is a key part of early childhood development, caring for and supporting children’s learning by helping educators plan for ongoing development using principles, practices, and outcomes as the guide.

The EYLF planning cycle is a continual process that helps our educators achieve learning outcomes through information gathering and analysis. As this information is collected, they’ll create and implement various relevant activities, and then measure the results towards improvement.

Observe: Educators collect information about children’s learning, development, and well-being throughout the day during planned and unplanned activities.

Assess: Interpreting this information, they’ll identify children’s strengths and areas for development and consider it in relation to the Outcomes.

Plan: Using their assessments, educators design activities that consolidate, enrich, and extend children’s learning. They plan with intentionality so that the learning experiences are meaningful and developmentally appropriate.

Implement: Educators put their plans into action and guide and support children through structured and spontaneous activities to ensure engagement and learning.

Evaluate: Finally, educators reflect on the impact of their plans and implementation. What worked well? What could be improved? How can children’s learning be further extended? This ensures continuous improvement in their practice.

How the EYLF Outcomes Support Learning and Development

Understanding and integrating the framework’s five learning outcomes into our daily activities helps us provide a holistic and interconnected approach to learning. From observing and assessing to planning, implementing, and evaluating, we ensure that your child’s education is tailored to their unique needs.

This child-led approach allows us to be responsive and adaptive, ensuring that every little villager at Grace Village thrives in a supportive and enriching environment. Together, and in partnerships with parents and caregivers, we can nurture confident, curious, and capable learners ready to take on the world.

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