Enabling Environments: Free resources offer planning advice
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The way a nursery is set up can profoundly influence the quality of children's experiences there.
Community Playthings has developed a training resource, which demonstrates how to develop an indoor environment that supports child-initiated learning through play. 
Called 'Enabling Play - Planning Environments', the CD-ROM builds on the organisation's booklets Spaces and Creating Places.
The pack contains a PowerPoint slideshow with images of settings and children, to illustrate important concepts.
Starting with thoughts about how we as adults are affected by our surroundings, the slideshow goes on to consider how much more children are influenced by their environment, then offers tips on how to measure and improve provision.
The resource is based on the premise that children learn through play and that, therefore, the environment must support play in concrete ways.
Some of the ideas addressed are flexibility - since children's needs and interests do change over time - and how to create boundaries for activity areas to protect the play taking place. The importance of accessible storage and display in every area of the room, to support children's independence and 'ownership' of their nursery, is also discussed.
Creating a safe, welcoming feel in each setting is emphasised, because where children relax and feel 'at home,' they play and learn. The effect of too many conflicting bright colours, noise, and clutter on children's ability to focus is another important point.
The presentation concludes with an overview of the activity areas usually included in early years settings: role play, construction, small-world play, a cosy book area, wet messy play, and the creative art area. Community Playthings' method of room layout is explained at the end to help practitioners to create their own room layouts.
This new resource should be particularly useful for early years advisers and local authority trainers to inspire settings on how the physical set-up can support best practice.
Further information
The CD-ROM includes notes for the trainer and optional hand-outs. Spaces and Creating Places are available on the disc and in hard copy (free of charge) on request from Community Playthings. 'Enabling Play - Planning Environments' is available by e-mail at sales@communityplaythings.co.uk, at www.communityplaythings.co.uk, or by phone on 0800 387 457.
