After a recent visit to an Early Years Unit covering the Foundation Stage in a school, I want to hit an optimistic note. I went to meet up again with a teacher with whom I had co-researched about six years ago when writing the book Early Years Play and Learning: Developing Social Skills and Co-operation. (His class and the 'whatever you want it to be place' are described from page 95).
This teacher has taken these ways of working, which he had helped to develop in the earlier research, much further into an exciting and challenging outdoor environment. This outdoor space looks unlike most traditional outdoor spaces, in that there are no wheeled vehicles or climbing equipment. It is resourced with large and small tyres, tarpaulins, tubes, brushes, cable reels, milk crates, pieces of wood and other materials which have become the children's tools for playful encounters.
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