Role of the adults in EYFS

Why is this important?

If adults are not available to children, to facilitate their learning then how can they be expected to make any progress? The role of the adults within the EYFS is vital. You are the person who is available to move children’s learning on and teach them through those interactions with them. You, you reading this your role with those children is what is important. They need your support and encouragement to become the best that they can be. They need your help to learn new skills, apply what’s been taught and learn vital self-regulation skills. So being readily available to the children is paramount. But how can we ensure we get the balance?

Getting the balance right between child initiated play and adult directed activities?

Now everyone will have their own opinion and experience with how best to work with children and as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, you have to do what is right for you and your setting. Every setting is different and brings with it different experiences. But over time and through different publications it can become confusing or difficult to make sure that we get the balance right between offering children the time they need to play and apply skills, but also the adults directed teaching time to teach and model new skills to the children. For example, if adults don’t explicitly teach children about doubling, then they wouldn’t just discover this on their own. Now how we can do this is through playful exploratory experiences that engage the children’s interests and then offer activities / adults within the environment to apply these taught skills. However, getting the balance right is important. If practitioners are always directing the learning then children will not have the opportunities to apply their skills, however if children are left only to play and adults aren’t supporting their learning through this then again little learning will take place. I am a big believer in Anna Aphgrave’s ‘in the moment planning’. When interacting with children this is how I tend to interact and observe. However, I do too have specific ‘carpet sessions’ where activities are taught. I try to make these during transitional periods so that they can be supportive for children, for example when they come into the setting, before and after lunch and before home time. Therefore, I do not adopt the ‘in the moment planning’ way of working, but we do work in a way that is what is best for the children and the setting. I am currently the only person in the school with any experience of EYFS and to develop knowledge within this area takes time. However, I do encourage my team to work in a way during free flow play that allows staff to take the lead from the children. Do not force activities upon them, but go to them, share in their interests and move their learning on through these experiences. 

Development Matters, 2012.

No matter what way you work, know this, your role is vital. Those children in your care can’t continue to grow and develop without you. Without your support and encouragement. They need you to be readily available to share care and concern, show genuine interest in their interests and support them with understanding and applying new knowledge. You make such a difference every day. Remember, when you interact you have the opportunity to move children’s learning on further. By posing open ended questions, modelling or even providing new language, without you, this can’t happen. Discuss this with your team? Ask them what they do to move learning on? How do they support the children during their play? I know that interacting with children can be hard, even harder when you are used to leading the learning, but be brave and follow the children. See below Ofsted’s definition of teaching:

“Teaching should not be taken to imply a ‘top down’ or formal way of working. It is a broad term which covers the many different ways in which adults help young children learn. It includes their interactions with children during planned and child-initiated play and activities: communicating and modelling language, showing, explaining, demonstrating, exploring ideas, encouraging, questioning, recalling, providing a narrative for what they are doing, facilitating and setting challenges. It takes account of the equipment they provide and the attention to the physical environment as well as the structure and routines of the day that establish expectations. Integral to teaching is how practitioners assess what children know, understand and can do as well as take account of their interests and dispositions to learning (characteristics of effective learning), and use this information to plan children’s next steps in learning and monitor their progress.”

Ofsted, 2015.

I’ve highlighted some keywords here. You know your children, you know what they need. Be brave and let them lead. It’s difficult to begin with, but so beneficial. When discussing this with individuals, I like to give them this example:

The teacher observed Tommy using the scissors to cut the paper to stick on his model. The teacher showed Tommy how to hold the scissors and modelled how to use them when cutting. With this knowledge, Tommy was able to hold the scissors correctly and cut out the paper he needed for his model. 

It shows just how simple an interaction can be in order to move learning on. You can see here that just by showing and modelling how to use the resources Tommy was able to make progress. This would not have happened if the adults were not readily available to offer this support and so progress would not have been made. Tommy would then continue to be able to use the scissors correctly to cut and will continue to make the progress he needs to become confident in this skill. This simple example offers an insight into how even the smallest of interactions can support learning and progress. 

My advice to you is to take a step back and observe the children in your setting, where can you place yourself that you can be of most value to the children? Is there a child who cannot use resources correctly? Is there a child in need of understanding how to use the turn taking game? Is there a child in need of a challenge to extend their learning? Watch, observe and identify where you can step in. Julie Fisher’s ‘interacting or interfering’ book would come in handy with this too. It really allows you to reflect on your practice in order for you to fully understand just how important your role is in supporting children’s learning. 

Happy interacting. 

Mrs Morgan

Environment planning - what is the difference between ‘continuous provision’ and ‘enhanced provision’?

Recently, I was asked to do some staff training on the environment. Basically, I am the only person in my school who has experience of working in EYFS, so to further support this age group, especially as my HT covers my PPA and the KS1 teacher is new to this year group and as the children had missed out on so much of their EYFS experience, it seems fitting to expand everyone’s understanding. Initially, the HT asked me / suggested that it would be helpful to others if they knew what was happening in areas and so suggestions of adding questions, specific ideas to areas would make it easier for them. Now, although I do agree that I need to do something for those who enter my classroom with little understanding of the importance of the environment and how to support children’s learning within it, this is not my idea of good early years practice. So, I suggested running some CPD around this. The KS1 teacher wanted to add some elements of continuous provision within her classroom too.

My first obstacle from discussion within my team was their understanding of what continuous provisions were. As it was suggested to add things / signs / questions / statements to areas, I needed to explain that this was not continuous provision, if I am to set up an area specifically then this is enhanced provision and there is a clear difference between them both. I still see people now getting these mixed up. That they call continuous provision, their enhanced provision, so I thought I’d try and clear this up a little and explore my ideas of planning this and how to ensure everyone has involvement within this. 

Below are the definitions I showed my team. *Note images were taken from Pinterest. 

Continuous provision: ”continuous provision should offer an index of possibilities” - Greg Bottrill

Enhanced provision: where resources are added to enhance continuous provision 

These definitions are a start to explaining the differences between these ideas. Continuous provision is the resources / equipment that is available to the children all the time. For me, this looks a little like: the art area always having scissors, paper, glue, tape. The children have access to these resources at all times. However, enhanced provision would be staff setting up areas with specific ideas in mind. For example, you may have a group of children who are particularly interested in role playing vets, therefore an adult would specifically set up a role play space using vets resources to enhance the area in order to engage children’s interests. Both are equally important and both have their place within the classroom, however the problem here is when there isn’t balance between them both. For example, if adults always set up the environment for the children and tell them what is available to them then children do not take the lead in their learning and can only do what the adults tell them to do, not allowing children to become independent learning. Pinterest is full of great ideas for classrooms. I will often use it for inspiration. However, practitioners do need to be careful of this. 

Let’s think about this a little more. You may be investigating a topic around growing, you may even be looking at the story ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. If adults plan the areas and enhance the provision, this could look like:

Art area - children to make butterflies 

Fine motor area - children cut around butterflies / caterpillars

Malleable areas - children to combine materials to create aspects from story (food, characters)

Writing area - labelling aspects of the story 

Role play area - greengrocers with foods from the story 

Maths area - measuring plants 

Just from this you can see that there is little involvement / investigation for the children. The adults are in control, telling children exactly what they can do. However, to flip this, if practitioners only had resources for continuous provision, you would need to ensure that you adapt and reflect on the environment to ensure it still meets the needs of the children. For example, at the beginning of the year, you may need a fine motor area for children to practise these skills, however as the year progresses and children’s skills progress, you may not feel that this area is needed so much, so you turn it into something else, say a writing area instead. I’m not saying here that you don’t still need fine motor opportunities, but you may then have these in different areas, but you can see the needs for reflection and adaptation in order to support learning. 

This brings me onto my next point, always reflect on your environment. Make the time to stand back and observe the children in different parts of your environment, ask yourself and be honest - what are they doing? If the children aren’t accessing the area, why not? What’s not right for them? Is it not accessible? Is it not engaging? Is it too easy / complicated for the children? Do the resources need more modelling from adults? There may be many reasons and you may need to try different things to see what the issues are, but don’t ignore it, there’s a reason the children aren’t doing what’s needed. Also, observe the children’s behaviour, if they are constantly moving resources around there may be a reason for this. Not just a transporting schema, but it might be that your role play area doesn’t have the food the children need so they start to improvise with resources from other areas. Watch, observe, listen, even ask the children. Why are they doing that? It is so important. This was too you’re even getting in some pupil voice. Two things that really help me when reflecting on my environment are:

1 - Levels of involvement 

2 - ECERS audit 

Levels of involvement - Ferre Leaves created these involvement scales, ranging from 1-5, 1 being extremely low and 5 being extremely high. More information on this, could be found here: http://www.northumberlandeducation.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Well-Being-and-Involvement-Scales.pdf. With some of the examples I’d given above, you can use the levels of involvement to help you. Previously, an exercise I have found valuable is observing the children in the areas you have and then rating the areas against the involvement scale. Be honest. You might find that your construction area is level 3 (moderate), children access the area, but they do the same thing and can become easily distracted. Reflect on this, watch the children. See what they are doing, what resources are they using or not using? This will allow you to make the changes that you need to. Similarly, you might find that your graphics area is a 5 (extremely high). You might find that children have the equipment that they need, they are able to access them independently and need little support. It’s worth a try and like I said can be quite valuable. 

ECERS - this is the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale and is something I continuously come back to. These scales rate areas from 1-7, being inadequate to excellent. The document allows you to observe your environment and give descriptions of the different scales in order for you to rate them. What I like about this is that the descriptions ask what the areas are like in order for you to give the rating, but as it gives description all the way up to excellent, you can reflect on what you need to do/add to get to excellent. This will allow you to see what improvements you need to make or what areas of your environment are particularly strong. And don’t be afraid of the results. I have mentioned before that I am part of a brand new primary school, I conducted the ECERS audit in term two and no surprises I came out as ‘inadequate’. A little disheartening, but with limited resources, staff new to this age range and an empty shell a few weeks before, it was inevitable. It was something I knew had to grow over time (a little difficult for someone who wants things to be just right). However, due to completing this it gave me a clear idea of what I needed to do next, including what resources I needed to buy, what areas I was missing and how to support staff through specific training. It really is great and I’d recommend carrying this out, the value this adds to your practise is great. Also, when you get to conduct the ECERS audit again in a few terms time, you’ll be able to see the impact of the changes you have had. I am conducting another audit this term (term 5) and I know we’ve made so many changes since the first audit, so I’m looking forward to seeing the results. 

By doing all this and making the environment a clear focus for all and to ensure that we all know our role to play, I created a new way of planning for my environment. I feel it’s important that all staff are involved in planning. My TA sees interactions that I don’t see and vice versa and it’s important to know what’s going on in case we come to the same interaction again the next day. What I mean by this is my TA noticed a group of children role playing doctors, she then supported them further by adding doctors resources and modelling this. However, I may not have known that this interaction / learning was happening (it may have happened outside, whilst I was inside), so I thought, what if I can interact with these children the next day and then wanted to continue the doctors play. If I know that this has happened, then I would then know how to enhance this further, be that by offering new vocabulary or even by adding other resources / elements. That way it eliminates repetitive play and we can continue to enhance children’s learning and engagement. For this I created a new planning document. It includes each area of the environment, the continuous provision elements (as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the resources that are continuously available for the children), as well as any enhanced provision that adults have added (in the example above, doctors role play kit), recently I have also added the adult responsible for this area. Recently, I've reflected that I can’t possibly replenish and plan for every area, I simply don’t have the time, so I’d divided the areas between myself and my TA. Here is an example of one area:

We then add to this when we see things that have been used to enhance the area. It then becomes a working document between us all to ensure we are all aware of what has been happening in the environment in order to support learning further. I love the ideas behind ‘in the moment planning’ and love everything that Anna Ephgrave does, so I needed a way I could do this in my setting that supports our situation. A brand new school, staff new to the age group and other inexperienced staff. So far, this way is working for us. Again, we continue to reflect, but what I don’t want is that I am directing everything, yes I am the class teacher, but my TA is equally as important. We are a team and this way we all know what is happening and why certain things have been set up. It’s a way of communicating clearly and supporting one another. 

Be brave, stop, watch the children and reflect. Enhance the provision by following the children’s interests, but ensure the resources are available through your continuous provision. Leave some comments below with how you plan for your environment and what works for your setting, I love to share ideas! 

Happy planning. Mrs Morgan.

Science in the Early Years Foundation Stage

 Now, when it comes to certain projects that are designed for KS1/2 making their way down to EYFS I find this quite hard, however my mind may just have been changed a little. In my current school we have linked up to a local science centre and were tasked with creating a poster (to present) about a chosen science experiment. Now, having taught mostly in EYFS when thinking of a science experiment that would relate to the children in my current class, I struggled a little. If I do something like this, then I always want to make it meaningful and purposeful for the children, so I did the usual thing and went to Google and typed in science experiments. I have done a couple of these before, but the experiments were short lived. I’m not totally sure how this happened, however one day I came up with an idea linked to our current overarching theme ‘all this work, but who can help’, similar to ‘people who help us’, well this particular week we were looking at the role of a dentist and a child in my class told me that they like to drink coke. After the discussion about how it’s bad for your teeth, I thought about the experiment where you look at how much sugar are in different types of drinks and measure this out. But after some further thoughts, I felt that this again may be a little short lived. However, after researching some science experiments linked to tooth decay I think I finally found one that would suit us. 

https://www.science-sparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Tooth-Decay-and-Egg-Experiment.pdf 

This experiment involved putting eggs into containers of different types of drinks and observing if the egg would decay. You could then follow this on by adding toothpaste to a part of the egg to see the effects of this, but due to time constraints we didn’t do this part of the experiment. The point of this being that the egg shells are similar to the enamel on your teeth. So after talking about the role of dentists and the child saying that they like to drink coke, I thought it’s be a great opportunity to complete this experiment. The chosen liquids were coke (due to this child’s confession), coffee (as lots of children tell me this is what their parents drink) and water (the healthier choice!). 

Recently I have been lucky enough that one of my parents found an old fish tank for me, which I turned into a ‘curiosity cube’, this would mean that children are able to observe what is in the cube during their free flow play and keep coming back to it, great for looking at observations over time. So, first I got the resources for the experiment and used a carpet session to show the children what the experiment was and we discussed having to observe over a few days to see any results. What happened next I didn’t predict? One child in my class piped up and said that the coke and coffee looked the same in the glass, so how could we tell the difference? I asked the children what they thought we could do, great resources let’s label them! So I got 3 children to come up and label the glasses. We then talked about how the children were not allowed to touch the eggs, but they were able to look at them. I posed the question to the children of ‘how can we make sure other people know not to touch what’s in the cube’, again some great answers, but we thought about writing them some notes next to the cubes. Luckily, a few days before I bought some chalkboard pens, which allows us to write on glass too, so I got a couple of children to come up and write messages on the cube. They wrote things (phonetically) such as ‘our experiment’ and ‘do not touch’. All of which I didn’t even plan, the ideas and inspiration for writing came from the children. This always fills me with joy when children find a desire and purpose for writing because it becomes so much more meaningful to them! 

So, we left the experiment in our curiosity cube and observed it over time. Each day I would ask one of the children to record the results in our results book. They would write things such as ‘the coffee hasn’t decayed’ and ‘the coke is brown’. Another great purposeful writing taking place. We also looked at some key vocabulary and learnt about the word ‘decay’ and what this means, we then added this to our vocabulary wall and kept coming back to this to make sure children fully understood it. We continued to loosely discuss the experiment and whenever the children would see the cube, they would share their knowledge with each other. You can already see the cross curricular links happening, not to mention the characteristics of effective learning. So many predictions, links and investigations taking place. Next, I talked to the children about making predictions and what they thought might happen to our experiment. I decided to record some of these predictions, ready to turn into QR codes to add to my poster. 

After observing over a week long period, we finally took the eggs out to see exactly what had happened in each liquid and if any of the liquids began to make the egg decay. This was such a great experience and I would highly recommend you do something similar because the engagement was phenomenal! Again, something I couldn’t predict. So we took the eggs out of their liquids to see what had happened. We concluded that the water did nothing to the egg, so it must be healthy. The coffee turned the egg a dark brown colour and the coke had started to make the egg decay, as it had some little dots and cracks in it. I should mention that throughout this experiment we continuously took photos of what was happening so that we could share on our online platform with parents so that they could discuss with the children at home too, which was so important as the children were so engaged. Once discussed with the children we put the eggs back into the curiosity cube for the children to share and discuss with others. I then asked a couple of children to explain the results of the experiment, whilst I recorded this and could turn it into a QR code for our poster. 

Our final job was to create the poster and present this to our Headteacher (it will later be presented to the science centre for judging). So I printed the photos, got the children to cut and stick them on to the poster, added the QR codes of prediction and explanations of the results, I added the pages from our observation book and then asked a couple of my more able writers to write a sentence about what each egg looked like at the end of the experiment. The end result turned out better than I ever imagined! When it came to presenting to our Headteacher, it’s always tricky with younger children because everyone wants to talk all at the same time, so to try and avoid this and to create a clear presentation, I assigned some children parts to explain to our Headteacher, which made it clear what would happen, I also asked one of the children to be responsible for using the Ipad to scan the QR codes to show her the video (we’ve used QR codes a lot within the classroom and the children have had lots of training on how to use these). Well the children presented their results with such passion and clarity - I was so proud! Due to current circumstance we have not been allowed to have parents into the school building, however I managed to add the poster to the outside of my classroom and sent a message to parents asking them to talk to share this with their children. I also told the children that the first thing they needed to do when they left was to show their parents their poster, which they were all proud to do! 

This was truly such a valuable experience for the children and one I probably would not have thought about if the opportunity had not arisen. I hope to do more long term observational experiments such as this to further engage this investigatory, cross curricular learning. If you are ever in doubt of whole school activities and how to make them work, don’t just pass them off, give them some thought and make them work for you and your children. I now have many children who want to be scientists when they grow up!