Early Years Foundation Stage

Early Years Foundation Stage

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), where our learning is divided up into 7 different areas:-

 

1) Communication and Language.

The children are encouraged to listen to many stories, songs, nursery rhymes and simple instructions. Our library area in the preschool provides books that your children can chose to look at by themselves or invite an adult to share the experience with them.

The adults model the appropriate use of language to help your children learn new words and help to express themselves through their speech.

 

2) Literacy

Reading

As a preschool we share a story every afternoon and together we learn how to handle the books. As well as the preschool library we have a main library inside the main York Road Nursery School where the children can visit and are encouraged to choose a book to take home to be shared with their family.

Writing

We offer the children lots of opportunities to practice their mark making skills to help with their fine motor skills by using pencils, felt tip pens, crayons and chalks for both their inside and outside creations.

3) Physical Development

Our outdoor area provides the children the space to run around, to play on the ride on toys and encourage their coordination by using bats and balls to help support their hand and eye coordination.

We take part in lots of messy play activities where the children can create and express themselves through their artwork by using lots of different resources including sand play, water play, paints and sticking.

We use the main nursery playground where the children can explore the larger garden area and climb on the equipment.

 

4) Personal, Social and Emotional Self Confidence and Self Awareness

We help to support your child as they develop their confidence by encouraging them to achieve their full potential, their individual goals and to express their own feelings. To support your child to feel valued, safe, and secure.

Managing Feelings and Behaviour

We help to support your child’s feelings by being there to offer them support when needed. We help to encourage your child to follow simple boundaries and routines that helps them understand and follow the daily routine.

Making Relationships

We help your child to feel safe, secure and included in our friendly environment so they begin to grow in confidence as they play alongside other children. We are consistent in how we interact and communicate with your child helping to form a good relationship with them as we become good role models for your child.

 

5) Understanding the World People and Communities

The children enjoy looking through their family books and sharing photographs of important people with us. Some of the children choose to bring in toys from home which we will talk about, either on a one to one basis or, if the child would like to, within a group activity.

 The World

We encourage the children to take notice of their environment e.g. different flowers and leaves, the different shapes and colours of the trees, the planes in the sky, the sounds that different vehicles make. We encourage the children to take part in bug hunt’s to see what we can find.

Technology

We encourage the children to operate the remote control cars so that they can decide and control in which direction the cars move. We encourage the use of I-pads so the children can begin to learn simple ICT skills.

6) Maths

The preschool has lots of different puzzles from simple peg puzzles to more complex floor puzzles; we encourage building and balancing with our building blocks, sorting the different shaped bricks into the shape sorter and talk about the different shapes we are using.

The children enjoy looking through their family books, where they can begin to notice how many people are in the photo and who is the tallest and who the smallest.

 

7) Expressive Arts and Design

Children enjoy exploring their environment in different ways. We encourage the children to join in with their favourite songs by either singing along or, if they prefer, to join in with the actions. Within group time we encourage the children to move to music, play ring games, have fun making different sounds with the musical instruments and to have fun with Dough Disco.

Transition is a big step in your child’s life as they get ready to move from a preschool into a larger and busier setting.

At York Road we plan ahead for this big step to ensure every child has a positive experience. As your child’s time with preschool comes to an end, parent(s) will have the choice for their child to join the York Road Nursery School. If parent(s) decide that this is the correct move for their child, the school office will pass on any relevant information and keep parent(s) updated and informed of when their child will move up to the Nursery School.

Once parent(s) have accepted a place within the Nursery School, the Preschool staff and Nursery School teachers, will liaise and arrange a convenient time once a week, usually within the term before they move, when your child can visit the Nursery School with their Key Worker. Your child will meet their new teacher and be introduced to their new peers. Your child will have the opportunity to explore the new setting, visiting the different rooms and outside space helping your child to grow in confidence before moving onto Nursery. Once your child seems comfortable and happy then their Key Worker will step back so your child can explore independently knowing their new teacher will be there to offer some extra support if needed.