The EYFS has brought a welcome focus to the 'learning environment', with four of the 16 Principles into Practice cards grouped together under 'Enabling Environments'. A well-planned, well-resourced and well-supported environment can deliver all the outcomes for children as intended under the new framework, and it is something that we strive to create for the children at our school.
We are a 40-place nursery school in Stoke-on-Trent, serving children who come from a wide range of cultural and economic backgrounds and whose attainment on admission is below expected levels for children of this age, particularly in their communication skills. Almost a third of the children come from minority ethnic backgrounds and speak English as a second language, and an average number of children have learning difficulties or disabilities.
The quality of the learning environment for young children is crucial as it enables them to:
- make sense of the world
- make decisions
- promote independence and autonomy
- progress at their own rate
- interact with other children and adults.
Influencing our approach to planning the environment is our motto - 'Letting each child shine' - and the work of Susan Isaacs, who, writing in 1929, said, 'It is not what we do to the child or for the child that educates him, but what we enable him to do for himself, to see and learn and feel and understand for himself. The child grows by his own efforts and his own real-life experience.'
Our practice is also influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach to a child-centred curriculum - after visiting there in 2006 - and the use of recycled and reclaimed materials as in the 'Remada' Centres in Italy. Two more staff will visit Reggio this November.
We see the learning environment in three inter-related parts:
- the emotional environment
- the outdoor environment, and
- the indoor environment
(as in EYFS Principle into Practice card 3.2, 'The Learning Environment'.)
HOW DO YOU BUILD A QUALITY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT?
First, practitioners need to understand a child's emotional needs. Only when a child is safe in the knowledge that their effort is valued, will they become confident and willing to try things out. Only when they know that their feelings are accepted, will they learn to express and deal with their emotions.
Vital too is that practitioners understand how children learn and develop, namely through:
- exploring their environment (both through engaging in activities and through communicating with adults and other children)
- building on prior experiences, and
- enjoying a wide range of new experiences.
And for an environment to be stimulating and exciting, there should be opportunities for children to experience the 12 rules of play as identified by Tina Bruce:
- Using first-hand experience
- Making up rules
- Making props
- Choosing to play
- Rehearsing the future
- Pretending
- Playing alone
- Playing together
- Having a personal agenda
- Being deeply involved
- Trying out recent learning
- Co-ordinating ideas, feelings and relationships for free-flow play.
WHAT DOES A QUALITY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT LOOK LIKE IN PRACTICE?
Guided by children's learning needs and the rules of play, we have divided our nursery school into four areas:
- messy play
- imaginative, role-play and small-world play
- construction, and
- outdoors.
These areas provide the basis of our long-term planning and are set up to:
- ensure a completely cross-curricular approach
- promote creativity, as we know that all curriculum areas can be delivered through it
- provide maximum opportunities for interaction with adults and peers, thus ensuring that children also become confident and competent in speaking and listening, and
- facilitate sustained shared thinking, by providing space for children to move around freely all day between indoors and out and to access resources to enhance and support their play as they wish.
INDOORS
As well as the three main areas of messy play, role play and construction, our open-plan indoor area also has a book area, a listening centre and small computer suite with interactive plasma screen, sand and water and painting easel, which facilitates continuous provision.
The main spaces are multi-functional and have a minimal number of tables, so providing children with the flexibility and space to introduce their own elements into their play.
The role-play areas provide children with opportunities to build on past experiences (especially the home corner) and enjoy new ones (through scenarios such as a baby clinic and post office). These themes often stem from visits, as the children often go in small groups to visit local shops, the library, mosque, church, etc.
The book area, in a tent, provides children with a quiet, intimate space. The small selection of books placed inside is changed daily, an approach that gives the children access to a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction over the week and, we find, encourages them to treat books with care.
Children access the listening centre and computer suite freely during the day and are responsible for the sand timers that are used to denote start and finish times in these areas.
OUTDOORS
All the indoor elements can be replicated outdoors, according to the children's interests. In addition, we have a garden area, where the children grow their own vegetables, and a limited amount of fixed equipment.
We believe that too much fixed equipment can limit children's imagination and that the outdoors should be a place where c hildren can explore, use their senses and be physically active.Instead, we provide a wide range of recycled and 'found' equipment, such as bread crates, milk crates, drainpipes and guttering, tyres, bricks, bark chipping and stones. The open-ended nature of these resources enables children to work collaboratively and develop fantastic ideas.
ACTIVITIES
We plan for a balance of 80 per cent 'child choice' activities and 20 per cent adult focused, which means children's interests and ideas are truly valued. Adults also intervene as appropriate throughout the day to support children's child-initiated learning, so creating a partnership between adult and child in influencing children's learning journeys.
When children arrive in the morning, they are able to access activities immediately, and parents are encouraged to join in. Activities take place indoors or out and may vary from painting to having a snack, reading a story, singing, riding a bike or gardening, watching a caterpillar crawling on a cabbage leaf, building a tower, counting, practising pouring, threading beads or sewing. The emphasis is on providing freedom, flexibility and giving children the opportunity to engage with an activity that interests them for however long they want.
Children divide into three groups, with their key workers, three times a day (9.15am, 1.30pm and 2.30pm) for two focused activities and an end of day circle time session, each lasting about 15 minutes - depending on the children's level of engagement.
The sessions aim to deliver the learning objectives covered in our medium-term plans and based on the children's baseline profile. While the learning objectives are set, the choice of activity to deliver the objective is influenced by children's current interests (and set out in our short-term planning). Activities can range from sharing a book to using a Bee-bot or experimenting with ice cubes.
ADULT SUPPORT
While the emotional environment is created by everyone in our school, it is the adults who have to ensure that it is warm and accepting of everyone, and it is the adult's role to empathise with children and support their emotions.
Practitioners work in each area of the nursery for a week at a time, which enables them to develop children's ideas from one day to the next and provide continuity for the children.
Key workers and non-keyworkers undertake short, succinct observations of the children, record them on Post-it notes and meet at the end of each day to discuss the day's events and plan how to respond to the children's interests. Staff also attend a weekly planning meeting to discuss longer-term plans and choose 'target' children to be monitored in the coming week.
WHAT MAKES A QUALITY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT WORK DAY TO DAY?
Effective short-term planning
Observation is key to assessment and planning children's progress. Close observation of each child coupled with daily (short-term) planning meetings is especially important as it:
- enables practitioners to share their own and the children's ideas,
- keeps them informed of children's interests and abilities, and
- enables them to create and modify, on a daily basis, an environment that reflects the children's interests, ideas and experiences and caters for the 'next steps' in their learning.
This daily dialogue between staff is an essential part of the planning process and we believe it is as important as the written planning - if not more so.
Staff attitudes and skills
We are committed to building on what children already know, never viewing them as 'blank sheets' when they start school. Staff understand how children learn and both children and adults are seen as learners and educators.
Staff skillfully develop children's interests and ideas to meet learning objectives. They intervene when appropriate, and through questioning, talking and modelling, move forward a child's learning. They make time too reflect on the environment, evaluate the learning and constantly reorganise it to meet the needs of all learners.
Time
Our children are encouraged to progress at their own pace and are given all the time they want to explore the materials on offer. Staff know that young children learn best if they are given the opportunity to follow their own rhythm.
Choice and flexibility
Being able to select an activity of their own choice encourages children's concentration and develops autonomy. It also nurtures initiative and supports the ability to take on new challenges. This is why the sessions are organised in a relaxed and flexible way, facilitating individual learning as well as small-group activities, as children engage with a wide range of learning opportunities.
Parental involvement
We view parents as partners and as children's most important educators. We have a gradual induction programme which allows for a child-centred approach and regularly explain children's learning to parents (in part through workshops). We also engage parent helpers to support us with visits and other tasks in school, which has many benefits. It means parents are involved with their children's learning, they are able to observe excellent role models in our practitioners, and they begin to understand the importance of talking to their children.
Westfield Nursery School is one of Stoke-on-Trent's seven nursery schools, all of which have achieved 'outstanding' Ofsted reports.
Visit: www.westfield.stoke.sch.uk or e-mail: westfield@sgfl.org.uk
MORE INFORMATION
Planning
For more information on long-term planning, see Nursery World's series on continuous provision by early years consultant Anne O'Connor ('Don't stop me now!', 18 September 2008; 'It takes two', 16 October, and 'Level best', 20 November. The fourth and final part will be published on 18 December.)
See also Jane Drake's series 'Around the Nursery', which ran from October 2007 to August 2008.
Many of the following articles include resources checklists, but some local authorities have also drawn up lists, among them Newham at: http://primary.newham.gov.uk/files/early years/co-ordinator/ Resourcing_Quality_Provision.doc (or 'google' 'resourcing quality provision'!)
For information on planning around children's interests, see 'Follow me!' by Di Chilvers (Nursery World, 30 October 2008).
See also 'Building sites' (pages 8-9) for advice on long-term planning and ideas on how to enhance provision in response to children's interests and learning objectives.
All Nursery World articles are in our archive at: www.nurseryworld.co.uk (search under the author's name).
Shopping!
A trawl on the internet will soon reveal the huge variety of products that's available for early years settings and introduce you to a long list of unfamiliar suppliers - often offering competitive prices.
If you want a particular product and know the manufacturer, then search their site, as it should include a list of recommended retailers stocking their products.
We've suggested some best buys and recommended suppliers in the articles that follow, but early years settings can also source most, or all, of their resources from the sector's leading suppliers, which include:
- Asco Educational Supplies, www.ascoeducational.co.uk
- Community Playthings, www.communityplaythings.co.uk
- The Consortium, www.theconsortium.co.uk
- Early Excellence, www.earlyexcellence.co.uk
- Eibe, www.eibe.co.uk
- Galt Educational, www.galt-educational.co.uk
- Hope Education, www.hope-education.co.uk
- NES Arnold, www.nesarnold.co.uk
- Step by Step, www.sbs-educational.co.uk
- TTS Group, www.tts-group.co.uk
- Wesco, www.wesco-group.com
Yet, despite the array of suppliers and products on offer, inspired practitioners have turned to some unexpected sources to find the resource that they want.
Take the Tuff Spot builder's tray! It is now a staple of early years provision, has inspired imitations and activity books and made it in to early years catalogues.
Now it seems the humble dog basket is catching on. Nursery World was inundated with calls after featuring 'dog basket' beds for babies and toddlers and Giant Steps Horden Limited has taken the same approach (see pages 33-34). What next for unusual best buys?
