Enabling environments: Around the nursery - Day to day

To meet the commitments of the new early years framework, and to put principles supporting children's development and learning into practice, it is important that settings assess the quality of their 'continuous provision' - that is, the provision that is available daily to children, indoors and out, and comprises sand, water, construction, mark-making, role play and so on.

Effective 'continuous provision' offers children a constant environment that:

- is safe but challenging

- allows them freedom, independence and choice

- recognises their need to be active learners

- supports their learning and development across the six areas of the curriculum.

To be of a high quality, areas of provision need to be:

- planned carefully

- equipped with a basic set of appropriate resources that can then be enhanced to support children's individual or group interests

- staffed by adults who are responsive and supportive of the children's emotional and learning needs.

Importance

The importance of continuous provision lies in its capacity to enrich and support a child's 'learning journey'. The environment available to them should support them on this journey.

For children to further their learning in a meaningful way, they need to be able to return to their explorations and ideas on a daily basis and they need time to become involved in deep learning experiences. They should be able to build on what they did yesterday, or the day before, or even a few weeks before, and to know that provision will be constant enough for them to do this.

Within continuous provision, children will be able to make choices within the environment and initiate their own play and learning, gravitating towards the activities and experiences they need to develop physically and cognitively.

For learning to become embedded, children need to practise skills and explore concepts in a range of contexts, and these must be planned into the continuous provision. Practice and repetition will strengthen the connections and links within the brain.

The implications of increased flexibility for parents are that children's attendance patterns will vary and the make-up of the whole group may differ from day to day. A more responsive approach to supporting children's learning within continuous provision is much more likely to meet the needs of individuals than an adult-led 'topic' planned for all children in any setting and will also make organisation for the adults much more straightforward.

Adult role

Aims

- Adults should aim to provide an environment, indoors and out, that supports children's emotional well-being and motivates them to learn.

- The initiative of the children should determine what happens within that environment.

- Adults should be warm and respectful towards children and create a safe context for them to try out new things without fear of failure.

- Adults should also establish rules and behaviour expectations with children.

Planning

- Once areas of provision have been set up, adults should plan time to support children in accessing equipment, learning 'tidy up' routines, and acquiring specific skills.

- Where practitioners are committed to the principle of continuous provision, they will recognise the importance of the basic areas as a valuable context for teaching and learning and should plan to spend time with children supporting their self-initiated play.

Supporting

- The nature of this support will vary according to the needs of the children at that time and a period of observation will help to ascertain the most appropriate course of action.

- It may be that the adult plays alongside the children, listening and responding to their talk and ideas.

- Adults may also model ideas and language, asking questions and making suggestions to support children's learning.

- As play progresses, it may be helpful to offer additional resources to enable children to take their ideas further or in different directions.

Assessment

- Assessment is a crucial part of the adult's role and it is the observations in a child-initiated context that will generate the most reliable information about children's learning.

- Through observation within continuous provision, the practitioner will be able to identify repeated patterns in behaviour, personal interests and landmarks in children's learning and development.

- For high-quality learning and assessment to take place within the areas, it is important that practitioners look at how the routines in their setting impact on the effectiveness of the continuous provision.

- Where routines disrupt children's ability to become deeply involved for extended periods of time, or take adults away from the role outlined above, the purpose and timing of these routines should be changed. For example, a whole-group snack time could be replaced by a self-service area where children can access snacks at a time that fits with the rhythm of their day and play.

Challenges

- Space, storage and shared premises all pose potential challenges.

- Practitioners should organise areas and resources in a way that encourages children to replace and tidy away resources after play.

- In the case of shared premises, practitioners will need to be creative in their approach to organisation and storage. For example, they need to select storage furniture that is stackable or wheeled, and could provide a 'floor map', so that all adults know how to set up the provision quickly and easily every day.

Parents and carers

Nursery provision should reflect the local community and make meaningful links with the children's experience.

For this to be a genuine reflection, parents and carers should be consulted during the planning process, as they:

- can offer an insight into the cultures and beliefs in the community, local industries, celebrations and so on

- have vital information to share about their children's current interests, which can then be supported through the nursery provision

- often have skills and knowledge that can enhance children's experiences within the provision

- may be able to help children with English as an additional language to fully access the curriculum, for example, by reading stories in home language and working with staff to produce dual language signs

When parents work within the setting, or spend time with their child in nursery, they will be contributing to the emotional environment and should be aware of the ethos and aims of the setting.

Part 2 of our series on continuous provision on 1 November looks at the sand area

LINKS TO EYFS & GUIDANCE

When considering how to plan for 'continuous provision', the theme of Enabling Environments will be an obvious starting point, though practitioners will have to consider all four themes complementing each other and work to ensure a consistent approach.

- EE 3.3 The Learning Environment is the commitment featuring predominantly in this series, although the other three commitments within Enabling Environments will be addressed.

Within the Learning Environment, three specific elements are identified:

- the emotional environment

- the indoor environment

- the outdoor environment.

It is essential that practitioners consider all three elements when developing their continuous provision.

Jane Drake is a children's centre teacher for Leeds.