Quick. Climb through here. Down the pole – there's a fire,’ shouts four-year-old Tom, as he sets the scene for an adventure on the climbing frame. As a fleet of firefighters come to the rescue, peddling as fast as they can on their tricycles, another group of children carry watering cans to the scene to put out the fire.
This form of open-ended play, which is rich in language, physical activity and social interaction, is typical of the daily scenarios that unfold at North Wingfield Primary & Nursery Academy in north Derbyshire.
‘Physicality underpins all areas of learning,’ explains Diane Parmley, assistant head of EYFS and KS1. ‘If children have the space and freedom to move on a large scale – climbing up steps, crawling through tunnels, sliding down poles, riding bikes, transporting heavy objects – it supports other areas of learning, such as language and communication and co-operative play.
‘It also enables them to express themselves, use their imagination and be noisy. Ultimately, it gives them the licence to play.’
FREE-FLOW PLAY
Rather than being confined to the indoor spaces of a classroom, Reception children at North Wingfield enjoy all-day, free-flow access to a spacious outdoor garden – purposefully designed to support and address gaps in their physical development.
‘We have structured morning phonics, a maths activity and literacy in the afternoon, but the doors are open at all other times and the outdoor areas of learning mirror the indoors but on a larger scale,’ Parmley adds.
Outdoor learning sessions based around the seasons and Understanding the World are also on offer, where children use their physicality in the environment to move around and get muddy and messy.
‘The only time we're not outdoors is if the rain is torrential or if there are gale-force winds, because we have no shelter and we're at the top of a hill,’ Parmley says.
ACCESSING NEEDS
A detailed assessment of each child's physical development needs takes place when children enter Reception. ‘We use the baseline assessment along with the Every Child a Mover (ECaM) programme, a Derbyshire County Council initiative that helps identify if a child has emerging difficulties and requires planned interventions,’ Parmley says.
‘We noticed that some children were arriving in Reception without the palmar grasp reflex being fully integrated. This is an involuntary grasping response to stimulation of the palm which typically disappears around five to six months of age. If it's not lost, it becomes intrinsic and can interfere with fine motor development, such as handwriting, using scissors, or dressing independently.
‘To encourage more hand and finger strength leading up to Year 1, to support foundational writing skills, we have removed the tables in our Reception classes so children have more opportunities to move around on their hands and knees. This supports children to move from a “whole hand” grasp, where the entire hand is used, to a tripod grip – thumb, index and middle finger.’
Another area of targeted support is around core stability. ‘If a child sits on the carpet with their legs in a W shape facing outwards or puts their feet around the legs of the chair to anchor them, it's indicative of their core being underdeveloped. While we encourage them to sit cross-legged on the carpet, we also put things in place to build up their core stability. Most of these interventions take place outdoors, where we practise balancing on the beams, going back and forth on the rockers or sitting in the spinning cones,’ Parmley says.
SPACE TO PLAY
North Wingfield's Reception outdoor area runs the length of the school and is shared with the nursery class. ‘We were fortunate to receive some funding to redesign the space to best suit our children's needs. We're also a two-form entry school with two Reception teachers, a higher-level teaching assistant and two special needs teaching assistants. This enables us to facilitate outdoor learning at all times,’ Parmley explains.
‘Our purpose-built climbing frame enables the children to do bilateral movements. They can climb up steps, go through tunnels, go on the slide or the fireman's pole. It's at age-appropriate level, so they can do it on their own, safely.
‘We've got an area with bikes, balance bikes and tricycles, so that the children can build up their progress to a two-wheel bike. Development Matters states that children should be able to pedal a tricycle at three, but a lot of children don't have bicycles or trikes, so they need opportunities within the setting.’
‘The balance bikes get children's hearts racing and help develop their core stability and co-ordination. The spinning cones are great, especially for children with SEND,’ she adds.
In the construction area, there are planks, tyres, crates and big blocks so that the children can build obstacle courses and stack and climb over things.
‘Children learn about risk, they are building their resilience and working as a team to find solutions. Being outdoors helps them regulate their emotions. And they learn far more by doing and being than they do being sat on a carpet,’ Parmley says.
EARLY LEARNING GOALS
With 85 to 90 per cent of pupils achieving a ‘good level of development’ in the prime areas of learning by the end of Reception, Parmley notes that the emphasis on physical development is clearly recognised by Year 1 teachers.
‘They're able to hold a pencil comfortably, they can sit at a table and they can sit on a carpet and focus for an age-appropriate amount of time. Once we've identified the gaps through ECaM, and we've put in place the interventions, the gap closes. For some children, we see four to five months' development happen in a 12-week period, so it is impactful,’ she adds.
One child, who could not pick up a pencil, was lacking control of their movements and found sitting on a carpet tricky, had a 12-week intervention that included balancing exercises at school and fine motor activities at home. ‘We sent home a Borrow Me Bag with threading and weaving activities, dough for manipulation and numbers for outdoor treasure hunts. After 12 weeks, he was writing letters and had the core stability to sit on the carpet. In this case, it was just down to lack of opportunity. It's a joyful moment for everyone when you watch a child's self-esteem improve,’ Parmley says.
CASE STUDY: Natalie Weir on physical development and the ELGS
‘The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework includes 17 Early Learning Goals (ELGs), but only two are dedicated to physical development – gross motor skills and fine motor skills.
‘While these goals aim to ensure our children are developing as expected, are they truly setting our children up for health and happiness?
‘Physical development is often the area with the highest percentage of children meeting expected levels. Gross motor skills even topped the charts across ELGs, but with childhood obesity rates soaring and educators reporting that kids are starting school less physically capable than ever – and less active – then we should be concerned that this data paints such a rosy picture. Could it be that the physical development goals are too narrow?
‘The framework reduces physical development to “moving and handling”, overlooking the critical role of core strength, endurance, health and wellbeing, not to mention general physical activity and motor skill development in overall development. These elements are essential for tasks like writing, which ironically has the lowest percentage of children at the expected level.
‘Let's not forget that movement is foundational for so many other early learning goals. If children are moving less, the ripple effect could be impacting their cognitive, social and emotional development too.’ Natalie Weir, PhD researcher at the University of Derby, has recently written a paper on ‘Physical Literacy and Physical Activity in Early Years Education: What's Known, What's Done, and What's Needed?’ (see More information). She has launched health impact start-up Playivity, which is a wearable product that measures physical activity levels and pairs with ‘play posts’ that can emit light, sound and text once ‘bopped’ to support movement play. North Wingfield Primary & Nursery Academy took part in a trial of Playivity with researchers from the University of Derby to look at the levels of physical activity among 19 nursery children.
FIND OUT ABOUT
- Nursery World's EYFS Essentials training videos: www.nurseryworld.co.uk/eyfs-essentials
MORE INFORMATION
- North Wingfield Primary & Nursery Academy – Chesterfield: www.northwingfield.derbyshire.sch.uk
- Natalie Weir, enterprise support, University of Derby: www.derby.ac.uk/business-services/enterprise-support/natalie-weir
- ‘Physical Literacy and Physical Activity in Early Years Education: What's Known, What's Done, and What's Needed?’: www.mdpi.com
