Early Years Foundation Stage

The teaching of vocabulary and modelling and extending language are taught explicitly. Furthermore, story-based activities encourage children to use specific thinking skills to develop language comprehension. Collaborative activities that provide opportunities to learn and hear language often also provide opportunities for wider learning through talk.

Staff observe children closely and learn to understand and develop their interests. Children spend large amounts of the day at self-chosen activities both indoor and outdoor, and the highly trained Early Years team understand how to move learning forward by responding in-the-moment with the children. By focusing on language development and a range of skills such as social awareness, relationship building and problem solving, our children leave the EYFS ready to access out Key Stage One curriculum successfully.

Real-life experiences play a big role within our curriculum and we like to share these with our adults at home. Whether this is in the form of trips and visits, baking cakes and bread, or experiences such as watching the newly hatched chicks grow.

The learning environments at Yorkmead act as our third adult. Every area of provision is carefully planned to provide the highest quality learning opportunities and to allow children to be completely independent in driving their own learning. We have planned spaces carefully to provide communication-friendly classrooms and our outdoor area is accessed by the children all day…no matter the weather.