Early learning goal
Personal, social and emotional development
Planned learning intentions
Have personal independence, be able to select resources for themselves and work independently
Early years settings have an important role to play in helping children develop a positive self-image and true independence skills. To bring this about, staff need to value children's contributions in shaping and caring for their environment and in initiating their own learning. Throughout, practitioners should retain high expectations for the children's behaviour and progress.
1. Boost self-esteem
* To give children a strong sense of belonging, as well as reading practice, provide each child with a clearly named coat peg, on which they can hang their coat and bag on arrival.
* To reinforce the feeling that they are part of a group, use place cards at lunchtimes.
* To help children realise that practitioners respect their need for individuality within the group, give every child a named drawer for their special notes, pictures or objects.
* Three-year-old children usually know how to take their shoes and socks off before they play with sand or participate in dance, so teach them how to put their socks in their shoes and to place their shoes together as a pair before they play.
* Using the toilet and washing their hands are skills that will be developed by frequent repetition and lots of patient responses from adults. Give children the privacy they need to learn these self-care skills at their own pace.
* Pouring their own drinks may take longer to learn and requires lots of practice. However, children are developing their pouring skills every time they play in sand and water, so they need to understand how these skills can be transferred to other areas.
2. Allot responsibilities
As children feel more secure within the nursery, let them take responsibility for routine tasks.
* Place a display board entitled 'Children who are present today' and a box of name cards at the nursery entrance for the children to put up when they arrive. Suggest to parents that they also take part in this daily routine.
* Children are able, at this stage, to clear away toys, so organise the setting so that all resources are properly labelled at the children's height. Children feel much more proud of their contribution when they see the tidying away task through to its end. Adult praise is needed to show how much their help is valued.
* Once all toys have been put away, children can continue to help by moving chairs to where they may be needed for lunch or circle time.
* Let the children be responsible for setting the tables for lunch. Plan a simple dinner rota so that everyone has a chance at some time. Provide plates, knives, forks, spoons and cups and let a child at each table work out how much equipment will be needed. This is both solving a simple mathematical problem, and developing an important self-help skill that can also be practised at home.
* At the end of meals encourage the children to scrape any remaining food on their plates into a plastic dish and to pile the dishes on a trolley. This task will prepare them well for the school dinner hall.
3. Weekly rotas
Children of four years and over like to feel grown-up and helpful to adults. Give them regular jobs that make them feel important and competent. Emphasise to parents that these self-help skills are useful to learn and that many children find them therapeutic.
* Feeding and tending the nursery pets are responsible and exciting jobs. Older children can remind the younger ones how to treat the animals with respect.
* Tasks which adults may find tedious, such as cleaning the paint pots, can be delegated to children who enjoy the experience as a play activity not a chore.
* In the same way, cleaning the floor with a shortened broom or child-sized mop can be good fun, improve physical co-ordination and give a sense of achievement.
4. Independence gained
Children approaching the end of the Foundation Stage need to exert their individuality and learn to make decisions about the order in which they complete tasks set for them.
High Scope methods work particularly well for five-and six-year-olds who are used to finding their own resources and selecting what they will do with them. The principles that govern this educational approach are that children need to plan, do and review their work.
In practice, reception class teachers need to ensure that children enter a well-planned class where the day's tasks are clearly defined and explained. Then it is the children's job to decide in which order they do them and to report regularly on their progress. This system enables the children to learn specific skills in an interesting way. Good adult support and stimulating tasks are needed to keep motivation high. However, the system brings its own rewards because the children are so busy that they exhibit fewer discipline problems.
Series guide
* This series aims to demonstrate the type of activity practitioners should provide to help children of different experiences progress towards a given goal, ie stepping stone 4.
* The stepping stones are not age-related, although it is likely activities suggested in stepping stone 1 will be best suited to three-year-olds, with later activities suitable for progressively older children. However, practitioners must bear in mind that children come to early years settings with different experiences, interests and abilities, and will progress in different ways towards a given goal.