In physical terms, the indoor environment must be well lit, ideally with plenty of sources of natural light. Rooms should be maintained at an adequate temperature and be properly ventilated. The premises should be clean and well-maintained and should offer adequate space for the children attending, and also space for storing equipment.
These basic requirements are essential for providing a comfortable and appropriate space for young children. However, to plan an environment that really embraces and supports young children as learners, practitioners need to understand the nature of children's learning.
Safety and security
For children to develop as confident learners, they need to feel secure.
From the outset, it is important for settings to recognise that a child's unique perspective develops through experiences in many different contexts.
The early years setting is only one part of the child's world and must, therefore, reflect the child's cultural background.
The setting should offer comfortable places for children and parents to share experiences, talk and reflect. It should provide play opportunities that take into account children's diverse experiences. The child's keyworker will play an important role in building up a relationship of trust and understanding between the family and the setting.
Children feel secure when things around them are constant. It is important that the basic geography of provision remains the same over time. Children will develop a sense of belonging as they become familiar with routines and expectations during the nursery day.
The way in which the environment is set up should also encourage independence and a sense of responsibility. Within a high-quality early years setting, the team will present a range of resources and activities and support children in making choices and decisions. Children will be involved in tasks such as tidying up and preparing snacks, and through these experiences they can grow in confidence, self-esteem and independence.
Settings must make children's safety a priority and so should identify any potential hazards and take steps to minimise risks. Practitioners should review safety regularly and carry out some checks daily. But within the security of a well-planned and monitored environment, practitioners should also provide opportunities for challenge so that children learn about the limits of their capabilities and how to make informed assessments of risk.
Space
Children learn through physical activity. All areas of the curriculum are supported when children are able to interact with the world around them.
They need space to move and to work on a large scale, either alone or with others, and they need opportunities for sensory explorations to make connections in their understanding. Such requirements have implications for the organisation of space within a setting and highlight the need for a well-planned and accessible outdoor area as well.
A high-quality setting will include an interesting outdoor area that practitioners view as an integral part of the whole learning environment.
It will provide opportunities for children to play for long periods outdoors and to choose whether to play indoors or out.
Indoors, a setting must also take account of children's need for movement.
It will provide space for children to run and jump and try balancing and climbing. Areas such as construction and role play should be large enough for children to work collaboratively and to extend the scope of their play when they wish.
The environment as a whole should accommodate children's different types of behaviour when at play and should offer space and opportunities for them to be both boisterous and reflective, to explore and to talk.
Listening and motivating
To foster in children positive dispositions to learning, it is important that practitioners understand what motivates children and plan the environment accordingly.
They should acknowledge and support children's personal or group interests through the provision. The environment should reflect a respect for children as individuals. This approach may involve introducing specific resources to areas of provision, or using photography to document and display experiences.
Such an approach to planning the environment also requires practitioners to recognise the holistic nature of children's learning and the need for children to make connections in their play and links in their learning.
Any child engaged in a form of schematic learning will need opportunities to explore the schema in various contexts, which has implications for the environment in terms of continuity of provision and relationships between areas.
A high-quality setting will offer well-planned basic provision on a daily basis and afford children extended periods to become deeply involved in their learning. The range of activities on offer across the setting and the freedom to choose the equipment that they want to use will give children autonomy over the direction of their learning.
The organisation of provision will also take into account children's need to work creatively between and across different areas. Practitioners will view bays as interrelated parts of the whole learning environment rather than as discrete and isolated areas.
Given that an early years environment should be responsive to and reflective of a setting's current group of children and parents, it seems obvious that they should be consulted during the process of evaluation and planning. However, all too often, it is the staff team that decides what is in the children's best interests. Listening to children's views, ideas, concerns and feelings should be an integral part of everyday practice in an early years setting. But it is not enough merely to listen. It is the adults' responses that will communicate to the child whether or not their views are actually 'heard' and respected.
It is relatively straightforward to consult with children when developing an area of provision. Children will suggest what they would like included in, for example, a new role-play area, and may talk readily about experiences that they would like to represent and explore through their play. In a climate of trust and respect, children may even request changes or additions to the environment.
However, practitioners should also carry out a more subtle observation of children over a longer period of time to evaluate how the environment is working for them at any particular time.
Children do not always communicate through spoken language but often through their actions, gestures and body language, so it is important to 'listen' to all of their 'languages'.
For example, in one setting a new child was reluctant to enter the setting at the same time as other children, and practitioners observed further to ascertain why. They noted that the child was overwhelmed by the congestion created by the coat pegs being close to the door, and that she was not alone in finding the morning handover stressful. The practitioners simply moved the coat pegs further down the corridor, so creating more space and reducing the stress of arriving.
Inclusion
When adults are truly 'listening' and responding to children, an inclusive approach will develop naturally. Any group of children will present a diversity of needs and practitioners may have a wide range of developmental stages to consider. They may, therefore, have to change the learning environment as the year progresses and children's needs change.
Within the group, there may be children who need additional support in accessing the curriculum.The nature of their needs may have practical implications for planning the environment. For example, a setting may have to widen its doorways to make wheelchair access easier, and practitioners would have to involve a visually impaired child in any alterations to the layout of provision.
In a high-quality setting, practitioners will be involved in ongoing evaluations of the provision to ensure that the environment meets all the children's needs and will liaise with other agencies for advice on planning an appropriate environment to support children who have additional needs.
Positive images addressing equality in all areas will feature in displays and resources, and cultural and linguistic diversity will be celebrated and supported.
Home from home
The type of setting will also influence the environment that is offered. It is important to remember that for some children in full daycare, the early years setting is where they spend most of their waking hours during the week.
Particularly for these children, settings should consider how to provide a homely environment for relaxation and reflection. Mealtimes at the setting should be pleasant experiences with a comfortable, family feel, rather than the institutionalised feeding approach that is sometimes taken.
Further reading
* 'The Importance of Space - An Introduction to Room Planning', 'Activity Areas - What Makes a Good Activity Area?' and 'Spaces - Room Layout for Early Childhood Education' can be downloaded from the Community Playthings website at www.communityplaythings.co.uk.