Planning should be a process that is continually evolving. It is the role of the reflective practitioner to evaluate regularly the resources, opportunities and experiences that are offered to the children in their care.
This reflection is necessary as children, opportunities and contexts change over time. The environment will be most enabling for young children if practitioners are prepared to adapt their planning to reflect the personalities, needs and talents of the setting's current - not past - occupants. Expecting planning to work historically is at best unrealistic and at worst ineffective.
We are fortunate that we have a curriculum document that requires us to plan from the children's interests and that we can use our observations to inform such planning. Clearly, as discussed in the previous parts of this series, our prime responsibility is to plan an environment that empowers children to show us what they know. In short, we need to plan to expect the unexpected.
Planning needs to be reactive, not constricting, and should be a vehicle for encouraging the baby, child or toddler to make their implicit knowledge explicit.
This latter point is key. We need to ensure that we plan so that children can achieve highly and we need to plan with appropriately high expectations. When offered a new idea, practitioners often make comments such as, 'Our children won't do that.' Of course, as soon as this statement is uttered, they won't. Planning is central to an enabling environment and can impact significantly upon children's achievement and, as a result, our assessments of them.
If we are to plan most effectively for children then we need to know them well. Equally, it is inappropriate to think that we can assess children that we don't know. Parents, carers and family members are an essential part of understanding the children in our care. Our planning and vision need to be centred on respecting and valuing all the cultures of our local community.
Culture should be broadly defined. Clearly, it encompasses race and religion but it is also about families that enjoy football and children that love computer games. Ensure that you spend time with parents. They are experts in their children's talents, hopes and desires and understand how best to motivate them.
PLANNING FOR SUCCESS
So what might an effective piece of planning consist of? Let's imagine that a parent who is interested in gardening brings some flowers and plants in to the setting. The practitioners have put the items on display, gathered together some stimulating books and related resources, thus giving the child and their family considerable status and building the self-esteem of all involved. The children have become fascinated with the plants, asking questions and returning regularly to the display to touch, smell and talk about the flowers.
After some discussion, the team decides to use the flowers to support the children across several areas of learning, with a focus on creativity. They particularly want a focus on, 'Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, think and feel'. They now need to consider how to plan this activity so that the children are free to demonstrate a variety of responses.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Consider the following aspects of the process by asking yourself:
- Is there a plentiful supply of good quality paper? Limiting children to 'one piece of paper' reduces the opportunity for them to take risks and to create more than one representation.
- Can children access the widest possible range of materials? Presenting children with a selection of pre-chosen resources reduces the range of possible outcomes.
- Can the children decide which materials they wish to use? Making decisions builds self-esteem. When children are allowed to choose, practitioners will be able to identify tastes and preferences.
- Do the children have the skills and confidence to use a range of materials? Children can be taught to use materials to best effect. For example, this might include mixing powder paint to the right consistency, blending pastels to create new effects and tearing tissue paper.
- Are children encouraged to combine materials to create new and exciting effects? As soon as children are prevented from combining resources, then we stop them thinking. A child that is allowed to explore and experiment with materials will be able to demonstrate originality.
- Are all responses and outcomes valued equally? If the practitioner requires outcomes of conformity - a series of images with little to distinguish them apart - then some children will fall short of the mark before the task is begun.
If the answer to all or some of these questions is 'No', then the children will not be able to respond in the greatest variety of ways. The environment has not allowed them to show what they know.
OTHER FACTORS
There are other factors to consider when planning for this activity to be successful. Imagine that the flowers had been rejected before they had even been put on display.
Perhaps the practitioner says, 'Oh, we're not doing that at the moment. Our topic is People Who Help Us.' Not only is a learning opportunity lost, but the potential for building positive relationships has been dramatically reduced. Once the flowers have made their way into the setting, they need to be cared for, to demonstrate value and respect.
Children bring aspects of their home life in to our settings on a daily basis. They arrive on that current of excitement that sets early years teaching apart - excitement about birthdays, the wind, new toys and burgeoning friendships. Our planning needs to reflect such enthusiasms.
BARRIERS
For many people, the barrier to working in a way that reflects the children's interests is rooted in the written documentation. It seems that the plans, once written, are set in stone and cannot be changed. We need to come to terms with this issue. Some problems can be resolved by thinking carefully about what we write down, so that we do not create a trap for ourselves.
Our emphasis should be on the attitudes and dispositions that we want to promote. These will reflect the nature and needs of the children. Playfulness, curiosity and perseverance are attributes that children have plenty of and this has implications for how new knowledge and understandings are developed.
We want children to acquire a set of skills. These contribute towards being a confident and capable learner. We may decide to focus on particular skill sets over a defined period of time; these may be included in our medium-term planning.
These skills will be taught in line with our vision; the core beliefs that lie at the heart of our practice, our understandings of child development and our firmly held pedagogy. We need to be the learners that we want to see - we need to exhibit playfulness and curiosity and excitement ourselves. Many inappropriate activities offered in the EYFS would never be put in front of the children if we considered these issues first.
SHORT-TERM PLANNING
It is, however, short-term planning that people seem to find the most constraining. To return to the example of the flowers brought in by a parent, some people would not explore this opportunity because they had planned to make a collage of a policeman or fireman.
If the learning objective is to 'respond in a variety of ways' to a particular stimulus, then we can plan in a way that allows us to be flexible with the choice of starting point. Sometimes we write too much, we are too specific. Not only do we fail, but we set the children up to fail too.
They may not be interested in our chosen stimulus and will not engage with the activity at the desired level. If the journey is the children's learning, we need to be flexible about the 'vehicle' on which they travel. Children will learn best when they are able to pursue self-chosen lines of inquiry.
ADULT ROLE
There is currently a high level of debate around the balance of adult- and child-led activities in settings. It might be helpful to make it clear that the adults have a considerable role to play in planning for child-initiated learning of high quality.
Adults have the power to create an environment, both emotional and physical, that can enable children to learn effectively. Such an environment needs to be planned for. Children's individual learning journeys should be open to negotiation.
CHILD-INITIATED LEARNING
For child-initiated learning to be successful, children should have access to:
- continuous provision that is well planned, clearly organised and relevant
- resources are well maintained, safe and well presented
- a daily routine that flows (for example, continuous access to outdoors)
- clear expectations for behaviour
- adults who value and understand child-initiated learning
- adults who know how to enhance child-initiated learning through the use of stimulating resources and participation.
Child-initiated learning will not take place when staff send children to a particular area, and make decisions about what resources should be used and how, without reference to children's skills and talents.
It is important to remember that adult-led activities should look as attractive as the child-led ones. Children come to us with a natural desire to learn - we need to be planning to make learning absolutely irresistible.
CONCLUSION
Everyone in your team needs to be involved in, and understand, the principles behind the planning for learning that takes place in your setting. Regular discussion around what is planned for the children, and why, will enhance the confidence of practitioners and help them articulate their beliefs to parents and carers.
- Part 5 will be published on May 28
FURTHER READING
- Bilton, Helen Outdoor Play in The Early Years: Management and Innovation (David Fulton)
- Fisher, Julie Starting from The Child? (OUP)
- Hutchin, Vicky Right From the Start, Effective Planning and Assessment in The Early Years (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Schmidt, Sandra Planning for The Early Years Foundation Stage (David Fulton)
PLANNING
- Long-term planning
Long-term planning lies at the heart of the setting. It focuses on the adult role in developing a quality environment in which child-initiated learning is valued and supported.
Long-term planning should be reviewed regularly to reflect changes and to ensure that all staff understand the core values that underpin the experiences that are planned for the children.
- Medium-term planning
These plans may reflect predictable centres of interest throughout the year. This might include celebrations, festivals and the rhythm of the seasons. The latter is particularly important when considering opportunities for outdoor learning. Each season offers a range of unique learning opportunities that can be celebrated and explored.
- Short-term planning
Short-term planning needs to be based on observations. It needs to be flexible, as do the adults that work with it. It is an opportunity to extend children's understanding and develop their skills and dispositions in the most meaningful contexts.
PLANNING STRATEGIES
Home visits, before children begin their time with you: This is an invaluable tool for truly understanding where children come from. Take time to understand what the families are interested in.
Scrapbooks:Give each family a scrapbook to complete before their child starts with you. It might contain photographs, notes about what they like to eat, to watch and places they have been. With the parents' permission, the scrapbooks can be kept where children can share them regularly with each other.
Conversations: Where possible, make time to greet families each day. They may have important information to share. Use the beginning and end of the day to share and celebrate successes, not merely to report difficulties and problems. You have an important role to play in building everyone's self-esteem.
Information sharing: Place a notice board, or painting easel near where parents and carers wait to collect children. Adorn it with photographs, notes and requests.
REFLECTIONS ON PLANNING
To help you assess the quality of your planning, ask yourself:
- How do we ensure that our planning reflects the nature and needs of the children?
- Do we allow the children to participate fully in the learning opportunities provided?
- How do we show that we have the confidence to be flexible in our planning?
- Do our ways of doing things prevent the children from showing what they know?
- Do we truly understand the value of child-initiated play?
