Nursery World - Right from the start (13)

Settings often struggle with planning for under-threes, to the detriment of provision. Jennie Lindon explains some key aspects of developmentally appropriate planning for young children Effective planning for children aged under three should be led by a knowledge of child development in general and familiarity with individual children - their interests, current achievements and preferred ways of learning. Unfortunately, it doesn't not always happen this way.

Effective planning for children aged under three should be led by a knowledge of child development in general and familiarity with individual children - their interests, current achievements and preferred ways of learning. Unfortunately, it doesn't not always happen this way.

What does 'planning' mean?

Part of the problem revolves around the definition of planning. In recent years the word has come to mean:

* paper plans, often written months in advance and sometimes drafted by managers or the head office of some (not all) nursery chains

* plans that apply to entire groups, along with determined learning outcomes. Even so-called child-initiated options are so full of 'do this, produce that' directions that they could more accurately be called adult-imposed and child-tolerated

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