EYPDP – how it will benefit your child

The Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP) is a programme providing high quality, evidence-based training for pre-Reception practitioners, which we have recently signed up for. Over the course of the programme, our staff will gain qualifications in Language and Literacy, as proof of the difference they are making to increase children’s communication skills and improve their outcomes in language, literacy and mathematics.

The programme forms a key part of the Government’s plan to improve social mobility through education, closing the ‘word gap’ in the early years between more advantaged children and their less advantaged peers.

This is crucially important: although development gaps and word gaps can emerge early in a child’s life, their effects can be felt throughout their school lives – and even into adulthood. For instance, an average of 40% of the development gap between disadvantaged 16-year-olds and their peers has already emerged by the time they are five years old. Moreover, by the age of three, disadvantaged children are, on average, almost a year and a half behind their peers in their language development. Children who are behind in language development at the age of five are six times less likely to reach expected standards in English by the age of eleven, and are eleven times less likely to reach these standards in mathematics.

By the end of the programme, our setting will have achieved Communication Friendly Setting status, meaning that we are equipped to help to improve communication for every child, whatever their needs – extending their vocabulary, encouraging spoken language and working with families.  This marks a significant step towards closing the ‘word gap’ and thereby improving the life chances of many of our most vulnerable children.