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Facilitating play can be a complex role for Early Years practitioners. Early Years expert, Emma Davis, explores the importance of child-led play and how to strike a balance between the role of observer and facilitator.
Introducing loose parts play into a setting can be a hugely empowering and valuable experience. As practitioners, our role is to facilitate an enabling and inspiring environment for children and incorporating loose parts into our provision can help us to achieve this.
As settings are being more eco-conscious, as well as managing reduced budgets, we need to look for alternative ways to set up and maintain a supply of free resources. One way of doing this is to set up a recycle and reuse scheme for parents and carers. Encourage them to save items they might usually consider throwing away, ready to use in the setting.
A positive to come out of the time many of us had to stay at home during lockdown was the way in which we became more connected and tuned in to nature. Social media was flooded with images of vegetable plots, wildlife in the garden, blooming flowers, budding trees and food cooked with homegrown produce. Now that we find ourselves living with COVID, rather than post-COVID, it is a good time to refocus on our environment, not just at home but in settings and schools too.
Many settings and schools are now looking to Forest School as a way to enhance their outdoor provision and opportunities for children’s play and learning. However, it’s important to remember that Forest School is not merely outdoor learning. Both have distinct advantages for play, development and wellbeing but are not the same. Forest School is an approach to engaging with the outdoors, led by a trained Forest School leader. Its ethos is built on the holistic experience of the child, led by the child, for the child.
Having to live with the restrictions imposed by COVID has required us to reevaluate how children learn. With lower transmission rates outdoors, and greater ability to naturally socially distance, outdoor learning is really taking off.
Those settings and schools fortunate enough to have Forest School Leaders are reaping the benefits of this inspiring approach to outdoor learning. The emotional benefits to this are well documented, and can only continue to be of value post lockdown.
This unprecedented challenge has called for all us to think in ways we just aren’t used to. As lockdown measures were eased and children gradually returned to settings, there was a lot of uncertainty and guidance was sometimes difficult to interpret, leaving many having to work out solutions for themselves or feeling they needed to plan without the full picture.
As Early Years settings begin to open more widely for children, teachers and practitioners have an important role to play in easing this transition.
Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge that children’s experiences will have differed during lockdown, just as they will have done for the staff. One thing they will all have in common is the change in routine and restrictions placed on our lives. Some parents may have been furloughed, while others will have continued to work, changing their hours to accommodate having their children at home.
With the new Ofsted inspection handbook being published last year came the increased focus on awe and wonder in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
'It is the role of the setting to help children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning.' (Ofsted, 2019)
The best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky.'
Margaret McMillan.
In this blog post, we'll be thinking about the outdoor environment and its capacity for promoting learning and development within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The outside is a completely different entity from the indoor environment in every respect. It should not be a replication of the indoors as it can be a powerful learning space in its own right. The ever-changing environment opens up a wealth of possibilities for children and adults to experience, explore and investigate together. It's less restricted than the four walls which enclose indoor play so the power of the outdoor environment is huge!
