When we consider using the environment with young children, we often focus on the natural world and neglect the wealth of opportunities presented by the built environment. We all encounter the built environment on a day-to-day basis wherever we live, be it a village, a town or a city. A large town or city may spring to mind when we are thinking about the built environment, but we can find many of the same features in even the smallest hamlet or rural locality. The built environment all around us is a fantastic free resource for early years practitioners to use with young children to enrich their first-hand experiences of the world around them.
The built environment is made up of a wide range of places, services and people for you to explore with the children. These might include:
* buildings of many different types
* networks of roads and railways
* services and utilities such as water, sewers, telephones and electricity
* green spaces
* signs and symbols
* sounds, smells and textures
* the lives of the people who inhabit different places in the built environment.
The challenge for early years practitioners is to find ways of making the most of the resources on the doorstep to broaden children's knowledge and understanding of the world.
Taking young children out on local walks and outings provides a vital extra dimension to their experience of the world. This is particularly important for those children who attend on a regular daily basis and are driven to and from their early years setting by their parents or carers. Not providing opportunities to go on an outing in a pushchair, or go for a walk, may deny these children any exposure to the outside world from one week to the next.
LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Investigating the local environment provides many opportunities for developing the early learning goals in the Foundation Stage and for addressing the requirements of Birth to Three Matters. You can:
* build directly on the children's everyday experiences - everyone can contribute observations, thoughts and ideas from the earliest age
* plan activities which involve the children and their families
* help children build their self-confidence and sense of belonging to a community
* draw on the rich and varied cultures which exist around you
* promote a positive attitude to children being physically active in the open air
* plan journeys and visits at different times of the year to look at seasonal changes and build children's learning over time
* encourage children to develop an awareness of danger and a sense of safety in the outdoor environment.
Don't underestimate the importance of this rich resource for developing personal, social and emotional development; communication, language and literacy; mathematical development; knowledge and understanding of the world; creative development; and physical development.
PLANNING FOR SAFETY
Careful planning and preparation are the keys to the success of any walk, journey or visit and to making the most of the built environment.
Staff, parents and children must all have a shared understanding of what is expected of them to make exploring the built environment safe and enjoyable. For staff this involves careful thought about the purpose of the visit and a detailed consideration of safety issues you will encounter.
Parents and carers can prepare the children by ensuring they are appropriately dressed for an outing, and are enthusiastic about the prospect of walking outdoors. Children need to be aware of the importance of following instructions and behaving in a sensible manner.
The best way to take account of all these considerations is to produce a policy for exploring the built environment written in consultation with staff, children, parents and carers.
Things to consider when drawing up your policy: 1 The reasons why you want to explore the local environment, including links to the Foundation Stage curriculum guidance and Birth to Three Matters.
2 How you will comply with statutory regulations regarding organisation and safety. For example:
* Staffing ratios must meet at least the minimum statutory levels for children of different ages. However, in most instances, and certainly with younger children, you will have to exceed these levels by using volunteers who are fully aware of your safety policy and procedures. Many settings have ratios of 1:1 when taking very young children out for walks.
* Identify roles and responsibilities of the staff members, ensuring that they are experienced and suitably qualified and are familiar with the local environment and the route they will be taking.
* Devise systems for logging who has gone on the visit, the route, time of departure, expected time of return.
* Draw up strategies for establishing the safe control of children while out walking, such as holding hands, walking sensibly, staying together as a group and listening to instructions.
* Agree policies for including children who have disabilities in trips outdoors.
* Check that pieces of equipment, such as buggies and prams, are in good repair and fit for their purpose.
* Take with you a first aid kit, a mobile phone and drinking water.
3 How you will give information to parents and gain their written consent to take children out into the built environment.
4 Arrangements for continuing professional development on topics including the National Standards, road safety and behaviour management.
5 Guidance on appropriate clothing for different weather conditions.
You will need to make sure that parents and carers are fully aware of your policy for exploring the built environment. Include reference to the policy in your prospectus, make it the topic for a parents' information evening or produce a leaflet on the built environment for parents using the ideas in this article.
PLANNING A TRIP
Think about the opportunities presented by different forms of transport - buggies, prams or feet - as you explore the locality.
Make the most of the learning opportunities that arise when you are working with the children on planning your journeys, as well as focusing on follow-up activities back in your setting. When you begin to plan a visit or journey, include the children in discussions about where to go and what the purpose of the visit is. Involve them in the decisions you make about when to go, how to get there and what to take. Don't forget that you will need to take notice of the suggestions that the children make. This stage needs the skills of negotiation and co-operation.
Organising a journey will give children the experience of planning in a series of logical steps. Help them to think about the whole visit and then to break it down into different aspects, such as how far you can walk, how long it will take, how many adults will you need and the route you will take. Ask 'What will we need?', 'How will we carry it?', 'How can we make sure we stay safe?'. Remember that you will need to carry out a risk assessment for any journey or visit.
REFERENCES
* Featherstone Education, www.featherstone.uk.com - Little Book of Time and Place, Little Book of Light and Shadow, Little Book of Living Things (Pounds 6.50 each)
* Construction Industry Training Board, www.citb.org.uk
* Road safety, www.hedgehogs.gov.uk - road safety information
* RoSPA, www.rospa.com - accident prevention information
* Three Bears Playthings, www.threebearsplaythings.co.uk - collectors' bags