At Yealand Church of England Primary School, our Early Year’s classroom is the source whereby all learning throughout school flows from. Here, the children are at the start of their learning journey and it is from establishing these strong foundations that relationships, academic success, identity and joy of life and learning can be nurtured and celebrated.
We have a Governor-led Nursery at Yealand, which is fully integrated into whole school life and is overseen by Katie Berry (0.6) and Kathryn Brown (0.4) as Class teachers with the support of Key Worker Emma Marshall.
In school we follow the EYFS framework (2025), which is based on four principles.
• A Unique Child: Recognising that every child is a capable learner, valuing their individual development, and supporting them to be resilient and confident.
• Positive Relationships: Emphasising that secure, supportive relationships enable children to become strong and independent.
• Enabling Environments: Highlighting the importance of environments that respond to individual needs, encouraging exploration, and fostering partnerships with parents.
• Learning and Development: Recognising that children learn in different ways and at different rates, highlighting the crucial role of play and interconnected development.
At Yealand Church of England Primary School, we champion all our children. We observe, adapt, celebrate, include and believe that there is no ceiling on success.
Children here are catered for as individuals. We have a ‘meet someone where they are at’ view throughout school and there is no exception within our Early Years class.
We understand development across the framework and know that establishing familiar routines, setting our boundaries and expectations, as well as forming strong partnerships with families is key to children feeling happy and safe within out environment.
We have day-to-day face to face contact with families, as well as a text service, weekly newsletter home, weekly Facebook updates and an invite to a parent’s evening during the year.
We use our strapline of ‘Let all that you do be done in love,’ to support children who need support with rules and boundaries to remain safe and build positive relationships.
All children who start our Nursery or Reception class have a time of settling in before they complete a Baseline assessment. Reception Class use the government Baseline Assessment online toolkit.
We have a robust assessment system in place, which we use to continuously monitor, track and support the ongoing growth of our children.
Children are taught in a variety of ways. Through adult-led groups, in small groups, 1:1, independent learning in provision, as well as with our whole class which includes our Year 1 and 2 children too.
At the end of the child’s Reception Year, school assess the children against the 17 Early Learning Goals to establish whether they have gained a Good Level of Development.
All children receive an End of Year Report in the Summer term to celebrate all that the child has achieved in our Early Year’s class.
Our Little Owl’s children have access to the Robin’s classroom, their Little Owl’s room, the secure outdoor area as well as daily access to the bikes, scooters and trikes road, the YOGA (Yealand Outdoor Games Area), the field as well as the 2 nature gardens onsite.
All children access worship daily with our whole school and we enjoy playtime altogether, playing and learning alongside our older friends.
We know that when children feel safe and happy that their outcomes improve. We work hard to establish calm routine-based environments which are inviting and exciting for all. The children’s interests lead learning and activities are planned around these to engage them further.
All the children EYFS have a timetabled morning outdoor learning session where the children access our off-site forest school setting. We have 2 trained Forest School practitioners who provide the most wonderful curriculum for our children to learn about the forest, seasons and habitats as part of their Understanding of the World Curriculum, as well as develop Physical Development skills through using tools, climbing and building dens. Each week there is something new to see and try and this outdoor space gives the children the freedom to enjoy the great outdoors and build positive relationships too.
The EYFS curriculum at Yealand Church of England Primary School has an overarching theme which is linked to the Key Stage 1 curriculum so that links across the classrooms can be easily made.
There is continuity of resources used in EYFS as throughout school. It is essential for our children to gain, develop and sustain strong foundations in all aspects of their learning. A large proportion of the EYFS timetable is based on the repetition of skills in reading, handwriting, mathematics and oracy as we know that these are essential for learning throughout school.
Kathryn Brown is the EYFS lead and Cara Blee is the Governor for EYFS within school, please contact the office if you would like to contact them. She regularly visits school and reports back to the other governors.
We have a separate Little Owl’s Facebook page so please sign up for that to see for yourself all the fun we have here.
Emma Marshall is our school Communication and Language expert. She helps all our Early Years children to develop their vocabulary, expressive language, early literacy skills as well as listening too. The children have timetabled NELi (Nuffield Early Language Intervention) sessions every week, with those who need further support having access to it.
Useful Links: Click on the images to find out more.
