Planning in the Moment with Young Children: A Practical Guide for Early Years Practitioners and Parents

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This is a form of planning in which the core provisions in the classroom must be stimulating and engaging, so that students may approach things themselves. Also, variation plays a critical role in achieving the moment planning learning outcomes. Engaging and stimulating nursery settings are specifically useful when nursery school practitioners do not have a full picture of every child’s interests. As one of the most effective types of learning, this taps into a child’s natural instincts. It ensures children are at the centre of their own learning and teachers simply facilitate this. They should not distract or lead the child away from activities they choose for themselves. Adaptive Teachin g: The flexibility and responsiveness of this approach reflect the principles of adaptive teaching, ensuring that education is tailored to individual needs and contexts.

When a child is deeply engaged, new synapses are forming – this is learning. Engaged = Learning. Conversely, when a child is not engaged, new synapses are not forming and the child is not learning. Not engaged = Not learning. We need practice that supports deep engagement of the most children for the maximum amount of time. The ‘Levels of Involvement’ (Ferre Laevers) are an objective way of measuring engagement. This tool supports recognition that the deepest engagement is seen in child-initiated play – when a child has autonomy and choice. Therefore, child-initiated play is the most powerful vehicle for learning. And child-initiated play cannot be ‘pre-planned’! Entries on the learning journeys are often accompanied by a photo. The sheets are gradually filled up over the course of the week and become a wonderful individual record. Staff meet with the parents of the focus children in the week following their focus week. The discussion revolves around the completed learning journey – a truly individual picture of the child’s experience. For nursery school practitioners, your schedule is always very busy and things crop up all of the time. Any method which can free up some time is a big plus. Being stressed is one of the biggest causes of a burn out when teaching early years, so this approach helps relieve some of that pressure. An enabling environment is critical. I use the term “ workshop” to best describe what is on offer. When children arrive, nothing is set out but everything is available and accessible. The doors to the outside should be open immediately as some children can only become deeply engaged outdoors. From day one, the children should be supported to explore the environment to see what is available, to select the resources they would like, to use them appropriately and to tidy the area when they have finished. Ground rules are essential when so much freedom is given – all the children need to feel safe. Clear and consistent expectations are key. For example, indoors the children will walk and use quieter voices – running and shouting can be done outside.Each educational setting is unique, and an adults role is to provide students with an enjoyable experience of learning and experiment to know what works for his educational setting. Another advantage of this approach is reduced paperwork. As you are planning less, you have more free time to spend with the children, immersing yourself in the experience. For any nursery practitioner, less paperwork has to be a good thing! How Do I Introduce In the Moment Planning? Over the years the word ‘ planning’ has become what I call a ‘ weasel’ word in that it is somewhat elusive and difficult to pin down. Wikipedia defines such words as The Child’s Spark – This is when the child first shows an interest in something. There should be an air of fascination around the object and concentration in what they are now doing. ‍ Sienna has completed her story but has no punctuation. ‘T’ reminds her to read through her writing and explains how to use full stops. Sienna reads her story and adds full stops correctly.”

The Teachable Moment – The teacher notices this interest and approaches the child. This gives the teacher the opportunity to extend the child’s interest by asking open ended questions and thinking of ways this interest can be applied to other areas of teaching.Don’t ask a child what their interests are. They should be allowed to play freely while you interpret these interests. The book explores ways of maintaining a strong link to practice, providing examples of how practitioners can integrate spontaneous planning and rich adult-child interactions into their everyday practice. It also makes clear the obvious points that if you are planning and responding, adapting and treating each child as unique, while working within the foundation stage, then surely each child has the best chance possible of achieving good levels of development." Foundation Stage Learning: This planning method is particularly effective in the foundation stage, where experiential learning is key. It resonates with John Dewey's philosophy of hands-on learning, emphasizing the importance of direct experience in education. This approach is focussed on nursery practitioners being present with children and essentially planning in the moment instead of trying to get ahead. This allows a teacher to respond to a child’s interests and tailor activities to suit their genuine strengths and weaknesses. Instead of pulling children out of play to complete an assessment, ITMP is based on activities which have a real meaning to them. The current concerns are around ‘ curriculum’ and ‘ progress’ and what these will look like from September. The revised EYFS framework seems to have really thrown people and caused much confusion when it really need not have done.

You can then use this knowledge to extend a child’s learning in the moment, rather than taking the long-term cycle of observation, reflection and planning. With this approach, everything is done instantly.As I write this book, we are working under the revised EYFS and a new Ofsted Framework. Everything described in this book meets the current legal requirements – the recent Ofsted inspections confirm this. However, more important is the fact that we are delivering excellent early years practice which is best for the children. Going forward, we will continue to do what is best for young children, even if it conflicts with government decisions. As practitioners, we need to be passionate and determined in our defence of best early years practice. The “top down” pressure for the “schoolification” of the early years is intense. We need to demonstrate that children can achieve outstanding progress by playing, following their hearts, pursuing their interests and taking risks. The environment and interactions that we offer are crucial in this endeavour. I hope this book will help practitioners feel confident and inspired to trust that children do have a natural desire to explore and learn. The book should also give ideas on how best to support children’s exploration and learning through the environment and the interactions that we offer. We began putting Planning in the Moment into action in September 2017 after some considerable time getting our environment right. At the end of our first year I can see how it has benefitted both staff and the children in our care. The staff are now much less stressed and relaxed and are free to spend quality time with the children, ensuring that no teachable moment is missed.　They have all commented on how much better they feel they know their key children. The children’s personal, emotional and social development has surpassed that of previous cohorts. They are much more resilient, independent and show an excitement for learning, safe in the knowledge that the adults will follow their lead."