Nursery Equipment: Editor's view
Ruth Thomson
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Early years settings are paying ever greater attention to the quality of provision for children under three, and practice has come a long way since the introduction of the Birth to Three Matters framework.
There is concern among advisers, though, that extending the six areas of learning to birth in the EYFS has left some settings uncertain about resourcing for the very young. Part of the problem for nurseries is knowing what the starting points for planning should be - the emotional environment? schemas? the areas of learning? Added to that is the problem of knowing what high-quality enabling environments actually look like for babies, toddlers and two-year-olds.
This edition of Nursery Equipment aims to help nurseries on both counts.
Early years consultant Penny Tassoni starts by outlining the essential features of top-quality provision for underthrees (see pages 4-5). To follow is a picture gallery illustrating enabling environments for this age group (see pages 6-10) and finally, we offer suggestions for resourcing across the nursery, both inside and out.
What is good news is that increasing numbers of suppliers are more in tune with the needs of the very young and responding with more natural materials and open-ended products capable of providing the rich sensory experiences that this age group needs. Of course, expert opinion remains the same on one point: the most important resource of all is the caring and 'tuned-in' practitioner.
