Each article will provide you with some important background information on policy, some real-life case studies and examples of principles into practice and a list of useful resources, as well as some questions to challenge your own understanding and practice.
The Early Years Foundation Stage, paragraph 3.3, states: 'A rich and varied environment supports children's learning and development. It gives them the confidence to explore and learn in secure and safe, yet challenging, indoor and outdoor spaces.'
Observation, assessment and planning
All planning should start with the individual needs and interests of each child, based on what they can do. In this way you can assess what you have observed about a child's development and consider possible next steps for their learning. Remember, although you will have learning objectives in mind, the child may have different ideas about what they want to learn and how they want to learn it.
To build an accurate picture of each child's development, the observations should be recorded in an agreed way. Using coloured highlighter pens to represent different areas of learning can provide a quick visual tool to ensure that you are collecting a range of samples - highlight the title of the sample in the appropriate colour.
Many settings have found that building individual profile books is effective, particularly where the children and their parents have contributed. Parents can be encouraged to keep observations of their children and share these with staff through photographs or written learning stories. If parents do not have English as their first language, they should be encouraged to keep observations in their home language. Children can also contribute by having their 'voice' recorded in writing by staff underneath each entry. You can track the child's development easily over time if the contributions are updated regularly.
Planning should be built around your observations and assessments. If you do this alongside the evaluation of your provision for the children, it should lead you to what you should be offering next. Then you are continuously extending the children's skills and abilities. You are also perpetuating the process of continuous improvement for staff, developing their reflective skills in order to improve their practice.
Supporting every child
At Rowland Hill Children's Centre and Nursery School, every child has their own individual plan, developed by the parents and key person. Children with additional needs have the same plan, but more people may have contributed. Each four to six weeks, the children's individual areas for development are grouped and the weekly timetable of experiences is drawn up for these groups. Each key person has a list of every child's areas for development but concentrate particularly on their key group of children. All staff observe all the children and pass these observations back to the key person for collating. When observing children, adults are encouraged to consider:
- What is the child doing?
- So what is this telling me about this child?
- Now what do I need to do next for this child?
Sometimes parents of children with special needs may feel that their child should have one-to-one adult support at all times. The following suggestions may be helpful when sensitively discussing this:
- All children need time and space to explore and learn for themselves.
- Constant one-to-one support can inhibit the child's ability to forge friendships.
- It can discourage autonomy and independence.
- It can create dependency within the child and reinforce this perception in others.
- Child-centred planning and a good key person system can enable a setting to meet every child's needs through differentiated planning, individual education plans and being creative with using additional resources as needed.
The learning environment
The environment has a huge impact on learning, in terms of the physical environment. But more importantly, the emotional environment needs to be 'right' in order for learning and development to take place. If the relationship between learner and learning facilitator is not characterised by trust and mutual respect, there will be negative effects on the learning process.
The learner must be physically comfortable in their environment to enjoy the maximum learning and development opportunities, so space for learning, temperature, levels of lighting, availability of fresh air, furniture arrangements and the provision of drinking water and healthy snacks must all be considered.
Children need to feel free to explore and learn in safety, but they also need the space and freedom to challenge themselves and take risks. Learning spaces must be regularly checked for hazards, but we should not fall into the trap of removing all risk - children need to climb and may fall.
To provide a safe emotional environment, our learning space should be calm and organised and also an exciting place to be. Resources should be stored so that the children have easy access, so they are in charge of what they use for learning. Children also need to learn to tidy up. If you establish fun tidying-up routines, then you are more likely to encourage the children to take part. For example, give the children a time-limited period for tidying during which you play music, such as the 'Mission Impossible' theme, or blow bubbles, particularly good for hearing-impaired children - children love to see if they can be tidy before the music or bubbles finish.
Time is also part of our learning environment, and we must consider how it is used. Nearly all of the available time should be devoted to individual learning opportunities and self-directed play. Keep group times to a minimum - they are often there for the benefit of adults rather than the participation of the children.
When auditing the inclusivity of your environment, consider:
- having open space between furniture to allow special equipment to be manoeuvred
- making outdoor learning opportunities constantly available - so you will need wet weather gear
- providing attachments to bikes and trikes outdoors so that all children can be pulled along. Can you make fixed equipment multi-sensory by attaching lights or playing music? Can you create textured areas using different paving slabs and scrap materials?
- having equipment at different heights. In the home corner, could you have a mattress on the floor as well as a bed? Could you shorten table legs to offer tabletop activities at different heights? What can be explored at floor level?
- whether you need specialist equipment, such as scissors and pencils, to support manual dexterity
- indoors, is each area as sensory rich as possible? Can you introduce smells, textures and sounds as well as story props at group time?
- It is helpful to have different coloured flooring to differentiate between areas, such as painting doorframes in bright colours to show entrances and exits.
- Audit your library. Do you have positive images of children with disability? Do you have Braille books? These are useful to explore with children and will encourage their awareness.
- How can children with speech difficulties express choices? Perhaps you could collect objects that represent activities and routines. Children can also use photographs to show preferences.
- Review your risk assessments if you are working with children who do not perceive themselves to be at risk from physical danger and may be unable to recognise danger.
If you adjust the environment to meet the needs of individual children and differentiate your planning, you will also meet the needs of all children.
The wider context
Make full use of your local special needs advisory service to support staff who work with children with additional needs. Haringey's early years inclusion team suggest that settings should consider these points:
- The SENCO or INCO (Inclusion Co-ordinator) must have at least an NVQ3 qualification and be part of the management team.
- If you have concerns about a child, talk to the area SENCO as soon as possible. Keep the lines of communication with Area SENCOs open so that they can assist with early identification and respond to concerns.
- SENCOs must attend regular SENCO training sessions to keep abreast of current good practice and legislation.
- SENCOs should have systems in place to review and reflect on their inclusive practice as part of their self-evaluation and development plans.
- Be open and understanding of parents' needs and difficulties, while being honest about your concerns about their child's learning needs, so that parent, SENCO and Area SENCO can work together.
Additional languages
When supporting children with English as an additional language (see case study):
- work closely and effectively with bilingual staff, and use their skills to support the transition from home to setting
- ensure children hear their home language in the setting, as it provides both reassurance and security
- value and encourage the first language of the child - it is an advantage rather than an obstacle
- support and encourage the child's non-verbal stage, as it's important that children are not made to feel anxious by being made to talk, but adults should speak with children even if they are not replying
- work closely with the child's parent, and share how the child is acquiring English both in the setting and at home
- record detailed information about children's home language and share with staff
- spell and pronounce names correctly - saying a name wrongly is unwelcoming
- value play outside. Supporting children learning English as an additional language notes, 'Practitioner observations have shown that children commonly make at least five times as many utterances outdoors as they do inside' (p13).
CASE STUDY: ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
Jessica came to Rowland Hill when she was two years old. Her first language was Polish. Before she arrived at the centre she had contact with the centre's family support worker through groups attended by other Polish-speaking families. These groups provided an opportunity for Jessica's mother, Janina, to meet other parents and for Jessica to be in a secure environment where her home language was valued and used by adults and children around her.
Supporting children learning English as an additional language (DCSF) states, 'Secure and trusting relationships with a key person are vital to a child's development in all areas. Bilingual support is a highly desirable resource' (page 6).
We matched Jessica to a Polish early years educator as her key person, which meant Jessica was supported in her introduction to the centre and Janina had someone with whom she felt able to discuss and share information. Janina says, 'I was very happy to have a Polish speaker for my child. Jessica was comfortable with her and it made things easier for me.'
When the centre doesn't have a member of staff who speaks the language of a new child, we use translators to help gain important information. As part of the home visit and admissions process we ask parents to make an assessment of their child's level of English language acquisition. We use this to monitor the child's progress. Staff can use this data to target specific groups of children when offering additional support.
A wide range of languages are spoken by children in the centre (23 last year). Jessica used her language with both Polish-speaking friends and other children, who were used to children speaking differently. She was helped to feel that her home language was valued.
Janina says, 'I want her to have the two languages together. The centre has helped me with this. She's much more confident with both English and Polish. She can change quickly. I'm happy with this. She understands we live in London but that she has family in Poland.'
FURTHER READING
The Communication Friendly Spaces Toolkit: Improving Speaking and Listening Skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Basic Skills Agency, ISBN 1 85990 428 9, www.basic-skills.co.uk). A collection of research summaries, case studies, DVD and an audit workbook that can help you to plan and improve your environments
Inclusion by Design by Clare Goodridge (KIDS, www.kids.org.uk). A guide to creating accessible play and childcare environments
Extending Inclusion: access for disabled children and young people to extended schools and children's centres by Philippa Stobbs (DCSF publications, ISBN: 1 978-1-905818-31-0, can be downloaded at www.ncb.org.uk/cdc)
'Principles of Good Practice': based upon Supporting children learning English as an additional language: Guidance for practitioners in the Early Years Foundation Stage (DCSF publications, 00683-2007BKT-EN, www.standards.dfes.gov.uk)
RESOURCES
SenseToys (www.sensetoys.com) offers specialist scissors and other equipment.
Letterbox Library (www.letterboxlibrary.com) specialises in children's books that promote co-operative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.
Braille Superstore (www.braillebookstore.com) can supply children's books in Braille and with text. Free UK delivery.
- Julie Vaggers is the part-time head of Rowland Hill Children's Centre and Nursery School in north London and a tutor, mentor and assessor on the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) programme.
- Elaine Wilmot is an independent early years and education consultant specialising in inclusion and leadership development. She is the author of 'Personalising Learning in the Primary Classroom' (Crown House Publishing).