Wingate Community Nursery School in County Durham was a familiar setting for Adam and his family. Adam and his mother, Sharon, had already attended a playgroup in the building, and his older sister Ellie had attended nursery the previous year.
His parents recall the confidence with which he separated from them and the trust they had in the staff. 'Adam was excited at the prospect of going to nursery and we looked on it as a second home for him. The staff team were so welcoming and we felt encouraged by them to be involved in Adam's learning. His keyworker Kath really took an interest in the things he liked and what we did at home with him. She took time to find out what interested Adam.'
Adam and his family, including 'Gramps', who lives with them, enjoy the outdoor life. They have a garden and an allotment and Adam and Ellie help to grow vegetables and look after their ever-increasing range of animals - cats, rabbits, pigeons, fish, dogs and hens. His parents believe that children learn by having first-hand experiences, following their interests and being allowed to make choices within a safe, caring environment.
Sharon says the nursery understood that Adam loved exploring and learning outdoors, and the staff encouraged that. He is one of the youngest children in his school year and needs the freedom to be active.
The adults in nursery spent a lot of time talking to all the children while they were playing and helped them to learn through supporting them to think about things in different ways.
Reading the wall displays and talking to staff helped Sharon to understand how children learn. Adam was encouraged to investigate through his own interests. The resources were always changing, so he was never bored, and was always excited to try new activities. Best of all, he had fun and was happy.
Adam has made a positive transition into school this year and continues to be confident. Recently he received an award for recognising keywords and trying to write his name.
The mission statement for the nursery states: 'By working in partnership with parents we aim to provide a stimulating, challenging environment which is a warm, friendly extension of home, where children and adults can explore, have fun, play, talk and learn together, developing as happy, confident and independent individuals within our community.'
Visitors to the nursery are immediately aware of the exciting and dynamic learning community creating an atmosphere of celebration as adults and children learn together.
Head teacher Paddy Beels believes the ethos of the nursery is exemplified in their approach to observation, reflection, assessment and recording that ensures progress in learning for all children within the nursery's responsive learning environment.
Paddy says, 'Our philosophy emanates from the belief that learning is a way of life and all members of the "community of learning" - whether child, parent or practitioner team member - are recognised as partners in the learning process. The practitioners are highly skilled educators who respect children as competent learners and value the contribution that parents make to their children's learning.'
Sense of belonging
Creating a sense of 'belonging' for children and parents is very important to Paddy and her team. Children generally attend the nursery for just a few months, so the practitioner team have to ensure that every contact they have with parents is respectful, encouraging and involving. They recognise the trust that parents place in the team and never underestimate how hard it is for parents to leave their child in nursery.
To encourage a constructive dialogue about learning, they support parents to understand the central role of play, and the link between emotional development and learning.
The team value the three-way relationship between parent, child and practitioner in the learning process. They combine individual spontaneous discussions with parents about their individual child's interests, learning style and learning opportunities with planned activities available to all parents. Plans for this term include workshop evenings around the theme 'Raising a Child Today' and a spring celebration event.
Learning environment
Creating an appropriate physical learning space that offers challenging, responsive and varying learning opportunities is fundamental to the nursery's ethos. The team have turned their surroundings both indoors and outside into a living learning environment that constantly promotes surprise and stimulates exploration. They believe in making the nursery visually appealing, so that each person entering it really wants to be there.
The physical learning environment is maintained in excellent condition.
Responsibility to maintain and refresh specific areas and features of the environment is devolved to individual practitioners on a half-termly basis.
The team is encouraged to constantly question the learning value of all the resources around the nursery, so that the continuous provision is relevant and meaningful.
The impact of the physical learning environment is impressive, but the vitality of the nursery, with its language-rich, focused activity makes an even more powerful impact.
The engagement of the children in the carefully considered learning opportunities, the interaction between adults and children and, in particular, the way adults converse with each other and with the children as they celebrate and develop learning, creates the overwhelming impression is of a vibrant living learning community, within a calm, loving atmosphere.
Planning next steps
For all children
Paddy once heard Carla Rinaldi say, 'Organisation is responsible for the quality of learning.'
At the nursery, there is a constant effort in the planning to give children time, space and opportunities to initiate their own learning through free play, following their own interests and passions, as well as becoming engaged in adult-planned learning opportunities.
Learning is continually evaluated by the staff team, ensuring that all children's needs are catered for through the whole integrated curriculum.
For individual children
The team believe effective planning for learning has to be contextualised in a child's personal interests. All adults have responsibility to create, support and extend the learning of all children. They start with the child at the centre and develop plans based on their interests. Using this philosophy necessitates a thorough understanding of the child and an ability to attune to the child's feelings, interests and possible next steps in learning.
At the nursery Adam attends, this is achieved through a keyworker system, so that each practitioner has additional responsibility to engage on a deeper level with certain children, developing a special relationship through observation, interaction and, most importantly, listening to the child in play situations.
Documentation
Documenting a child's learning journey is a way of life at the nursery and they have developed the effective use of ICT integral to the process. Over the years they have invested in technology and are a recognised centre of expertise.
A laptop is considered an essential 'tool of the trade' and every practitioner has one to maintain files for individual children's learning stories. There are sufficient digital cameras to ensure immediate access to record learning as it happens. There is also the facility to film and edit films in- house. As leader of the team, Paddy ensures that all practitioners have appropriate training in ICT.
The nursery also has a system of pro-formas and notebooks to support the recording of observations of individual or groups of children.
Using the information that has been gathered in this way, most displays in the nursery document the learning journey for children and staff.
Photographs and notes explore the paths of children's learning. This allows the staff to have an open-minded approach to the outcomes of both planned and child-initiated learning.
This honesty encourages children to guide their learning and allows staff to set appropriate learning targets relating to children's interests and understanding in response.
Documentation, therefore, guarantees rigour in the planning system and ensures that the nursery fulfils its mission statement.
Further information
* Celebrating Young Children and those who live and work with them is available free from DfES Publications (tel: 0845 60 222 60, e-mail: dfes@ prolog.uk.com, quoting ref. DfES 1211-2005 DVD
Effective practice questions
1 How do you feel when you enter your learning environment?
2 Does each member of your team feel valued and empowered to take an active role in your learning community?
3 Do you all contribute to each other's sense of well-being and achievement as you explore learning?
4 Is there mutual trust and respect when you engage with parents about their children's learning?
5 How do you document children's learning?
6 Is time for the integration of observation and documentation of learning an integral and vital part of your daily routine?
7 Do the displays in your setting reflect, explore and interpret the learning taking place?
8 Are all the team enthusiastic and competent in the use of ICT to document learning?
9 Do you take an open-minded approach to children's learning?
10 Do you offer challenging learning experiences for all children?
