In the Early Years we follow the children’s interests. Our reflective practitioners work with the children in a play-based environment.
What is ‘In the Moment Planning’?
In the moment planning is an approach where early years settings plan a topic spontaneously based on what a child is interested in. Child initiated play enables children to become deeply engaged and when this happens deep level learning is taking place.
Planning in the moment is all about capturing the moment of engagement and running with it to make sure the children progress. The teachable moment National Strategies document states: “It is in the moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest – the ‘teachable moment’ – that the skilful adult makes a difference.”
The child should feel valued, important, interesting, capable, and able to learn as well as gaining knowledge, skills, attitude and understanding, therefore making progress in one or several areas of the Early Years Curriculum.
Planning
The cycle of observation, assessment, planning, observation is carried out on a moment-by-moment basis. We aim to have approximately three ‘named focus children’ each week.
The parents/carer’s role: if your child is due to be a ‘focus child,’ we will give you a parent consultation sheet to fill in the week before. We value the knowledge and understanding you have of your child and would really appreciate it if you would share anything significant happening in your child’s life at that moment with us. Together we can plan activities to meet your child’s needs. This will help us to plan for their future learning and development.