Editor's view

Focusing on the short term tends to be strategically unwise in many areas - not so for good practice with the early years curriculum. This week, we publish the second in our series on short-term planning by Jane Drake (see pages 12-13), which gives sound advice on observing children's interests and responding to them. Yet despite agreement from experienced practitioners and early years experts that it is vital to get this right, there is much evidence that too many settings are still concentrating on medium-term planning, to the detriment of permanent provision and responding to children's interests.