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.
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