Nursery World - Outdoors: Key 10

How can leaders ensure that staff are supporting the setting’s outdoors provision to the best of their ability, asks Professor Jan White

Adults should enable interests and explorations without ‘interfering’ with them

Even the most extensive and well-provisioned outdoor environment will not be able to work well for young children without enabling adults who are well-supported, confident in their role and work effectively as a team.

KEY 10: ADULT INVOLVEMENT

Staff should be:

WHY IS THIS ISSUE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE OUTDOORS?

It can be difficult for staff to know what their role actually is outside. In seeking the most effective roles for adults to take outside, there are four strands to consider: thinking carefully about the purpose of provision outside; understanding how to harness the outdoors well as a learning environment; getting to grips with play being the mechanism for learning; and becoming committed to a child-driven, emergent curriculum.

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