Nursery World - Learning & Development: Physical Development

The importance placed on children's physical health is very much
shaped by a society's wider priorities. Dr Lala Manners compare
approaches in different countries around the globe.

Despite Physical Development (PD) being a prime area of learning, it is fast losing ground in the education sphere - a situation that will inevitably compromise the ability of health professionals to fully support the well-being of young children.

The Common Inspection Framework, operational from this month, barely mentions PD (it is labelled 'exercise' twice); the two latest Ofsted reports (Teaching and Play in the Early Years - A Balancing Act? and the annual review) make no reference at all to PD, and none of the proposed baseline assessment models include a PD component. Added to this scenario is the woeful lack of accredited continuing professional development training in PD for practitioners - or any structured support for theirpractice in this field long term.

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