The  Mead  Teaching  School  Early  Years  Learning  Sett  

 

Practitioner  Research  Undertaken  by        

Nicky  P,  Linsey  J,  Helen  T,  Jayne  O,  Sarah  P,  Veronica  M,  Juliane  M  

Research  question    

How  does  child  initiated  learning  impact  on  planning,  provision  and  attainment?  

Discovery      

Exploration  and  definition  

In  2006  we  participated  in  a  research  project  called  5x5x5,  based  around  child  initiated  learning  and  creativity,  where  we  worked  with  a  local  artist  and  cultural  centre  and  investigated  the  impact  of  child  initiated  learning  on  progress.  This  research  enabled  staff  to  have  time  to  further  enhance  our  team’s  Early  Years  pedagogy  and  for  a  period  of  time  had  significant  impact  on  our  practice  within  the  classroom.  Following  on  from  an  Inset  day  in  June  2012,  the  Foundation  Stage  teachers  (both  of  whom  had  participated  in  the  5x5x5  research  project)  spoke  at  length  about  current  practice  and  how  opportunities  for  the  children  in  the  unit  had  become  more  adult  initiated  or  directed.  This  does  not  mean  to  say  that  the  children  did  not  have  a  voice  in  the  ever  changing  learning  environment,  but  it  sometimes  felt  that  their  contribution  was  crucial  and  important  but  the  adults  would  still  make  the  decisions  about  the  provision  e.g.  what  the  topic  would  be  or  what  resources  would  go  in  role  play  areas.  We  concluded  that  we  did  not  enable  or  facilitate  the  opportunities,  including  time,  for  children  to  initiate  their  own  learning  and,  more  importantly,  to  value  children’s  lines  of  enquiry  through  the  planning  and  continuous  development  of  the  learning  environment.  As  a  result  of  this  discussion  with  all  members  of  the  Foundation  Stage  team,  we  decided  that  we  would  create  a  space  within  the  unit  that  would  enable  child  initiated  learning  to  happen  at  all  times.  We  really  wanted  to  clarify  our  understanding  of  what  child  initiated  learning  really  looks  and  feels  like  and  have  a  common  shared  definition  and  understanding  of  this  element  of  Early  Years  pedagogy.  This  space  is  called  The  Hub.  During  the  summer  holidays  it  was  created  and  by  the  time  the  reception  children  had  started  school  in  September,  The  Hub  was  ready  for  action!  

Another  key  aspect  of  our  Early  Years  practice  was  to  develop  documentation  of  children’s  learning  journeys,  as  well  as  our  own.  Questions  such  as:  

• How  can  our  documentation  of  individual  children  be  more  valued,  purposeful,  visible  and  informative?  

• How  can  parents  be  more  involved  in  the  documentation  of  their  child’s  learning?  • How  do  we  document  our  learning  through  the  research  project?  

The  two  aspects  of  child  initiated  learning  and  documentation  mutually  interacts  and  supports  each  other  and,  over  the  year,  one  of  these  aspects  of  practice  would  not  work  effectively  without  the  other.  

Following  initial  discussions  and  explorations  of  what  we  wanted  to  explore  in  order  to  re  affirm  what  we  truly  believed  was  good  early  years  practice  we  decided  our  research  question  would  be:  

How  does  child  initiated  learning  impact  on  planning,  provision  and  attainment?  

 

 

 

Research    

Refinement  and  enquiry  

Our  research  methodology  required  gathering  relevant  data,  both  qualitative  and  quantitative,  and  then  analysing  this  information  in  order  to  dig  deeper  into  our  research  question.  As  both  the  practitioners  and  adults  were  going  to  be  ‘in’  the  research  on  a  daily  basis,  discussions  around  children’s  engagement  and  impact  on  children  and  provision  occurred  frequently  and  was  documented  as  much  as  possible.  Termly  Learning  Sett  meetings  throughout  the  year  enabled  all  of  the  team  to  evaluate,  reflect,  challenge,  question  and  consider  next  steps  or  adjustments  to  our  research  practice.  These  meetings  ensured  that  we  kept  our  research  question  at  the  forefront  of  our  thinking  and  practice,  especially  as  The  Hub  was  part  of  our  daily  planning  and  provision.  Various  forms  of  data  were  collated  in  many  forms  over  the  year.  This  included:  

• Photographs  

                                                                                                     Super  hero  play    -­‐  mask  making      

• Observations  –  written  and  video  footage    OBSERVATION   Name  of  child/ren:  

Date:                                        Time:   Name  of  Practitioner:  

Child  Initiated  Activity:          

Adult  Led  Activity:  

Solitary  Play   Small  group  Play  

Large  Group  Play  

Sand  Area        Water  Area        Role  Play  Area        Small  World  Area        Construction  Area        Writing  Area        Book  Area        Listening  Area        Creative  Workshop        ICT        Malleable  Area          Maths  Area        Investigative  Area        Outdoor  Area        Snack  Area          Carpet  Area        Story  time      

What  is  happening?  (What  is  the  child  saying  or  doing?)              

LINKS  TO  LEARNING:              

NEXT  STEPS  IN  LEARNING:  

 

 

 

• Video  footage  -­‐  M:\2012  -­‐  2013\FOUNDATION  STAGE\the  hub  • School  tracking  systems  –  School  Pupil  Tracker  • Discussions/  written  feedback  by  parents,  students  visiting  the  school  and  visitors  from  other  

settings,  locally  and  nationally.    

                                         Feedback  forms  collated  from  various  visitors  to  the  school  visitors.‘  

 

• On-­‐going  documentation  of  our  learning  journeys….  

         

 

Documenting  children’s  learning  

–  sharing  the  journey

         

During  our  Learning  Sett  meetings,  various  resources  were  used  to  support  and  engage  involvement  and  challenge  thinking  for  all  of  the  team.  This  included  staff  reading  a  variety  of  journals,  which  included  one  key  reading  entitled  ‘Child  –  initiated  play  and  professional  creativity:  enabling  four  year  olds’      Craft  2012.  All  staff  really  valued  sharing  their  thoughts  and  questions  about  all  of  the  journals  used  throughout  the  year  and  it  really  enabled  us  to  challenge  our  practice,  each  other  (in  a  mutually  respective  environment)  and  to  move  our  practice  and  provision  forward.  We  also  used  an  observation  format  which  documented  children’s  levels  of  involvement  (Bertram  ……..).  This  form  of  observation  was  used  by  the  Learning  Sett  lead  teacher  to  analyse  the  levels  of  involvement  that  children  show  in  all  aspects  of  the  day,  including  child  initiated  learning  in  the  hub,  adult  initiated  and  adult  directed  activity.    The  data  from  these  observations  was  shared  in  the  learning  sett  and  it  was  concluded  that  children  were  working  engaged  for  a  more  sustained  period  of  time  and  at  a  higher  level  of  involvement  when  they  were  immersed  in  child  initiated  play.  This  supported  our  research  tremendously  and  the  staff’s  understanding  of  levels  of  involvement  through  this  discussion  had  impact  on  day  to  day  observations,  where  TAs  commented  that  they  were  intuitively  identifying  levels  of  involvement  in  play.  In  turn  this  impacted  on  our  planning  and  provision  in  the  unit.  Discussions  around  the  documentation  of  children’s  learning  inside  the  hub  was  a  key  area  for  discussion  throughout  our  research.  Questions  arose  constantly,  which  included:  

• What  are  we  going  to  document  on?  • What  do  we  write?  • How  do  we  display  it?  • Who  is  the  documentation  for?  • How  do  we  share  documentation  as  a  team  to  inform  our  planning  and  provision?  

Through  trial  and  error,  and  staff  training  on  effective  observation,  we  finally  developed  a  system  which  was  manageable  and  effective  for  all.  This  included  having  one  key  documenter  in  The  Hub  throughout  the  week  and  allocating  time  during  our  weekly  planning  meetings  to  share  what  has  been  observed  and  how  this  can  impact  on  planning  and  provision.  

 

PGCE  student’s  comments  on  research  

Hospital  role  play  initiated  from  children’s  interests  in  caring  for  others  observed  by  documenter  in  the  Hub  the  previous  week.  

Effect        

Validity  and  impact  

During  the  year  many  forms  of  data  analysis  were  collated  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  attainment  of  the  children  was  measured  against  previous  years.  Obviously  the  progression  and  attainment  of  the  children  is  crucial  in  terms  of  analysing  data  and  impact,  but  comments  from  children,  parents  and  visitors  to  our  unit  (locally  and  nationally)  continue  to  reaffirm  our  work  as  critical  to  enabling  children  to  show  us  their  true  potential  in  an  environment  that  they  own.  

A  recent  visitor  commented:  

‘The  Hub  was  integral  part  of  the  provision  in  the  early  years.    The  children  were  highly  motivated  and  keen  to  be  part  of  this  exciting  learning.    Part  of  the  excitement  seemed  to  come  from  the  fact  that  the  Hub  was  enclosed,  almost  like  a  hidden  treasure.    On  the  day  I  visited,  the  children  in  the  Hub  were  extremely  focussed  and  engrossed  in  cutting  up  an  enormous  cardboard  box  into  the  tiniest  pieces.    They  explained  that  this  was  to  make  a  bed  for  their  den.    Others  were  using  the  cardboard  to  make  tool  belts  for  building  the  den.    They  had  even  made  the  tools!    The  level  of  cooperative  learning,  which  was  completely  child  initiated,  was  astounding.    The  staff  observing  explained  that  this  fascination  and  interest  in  dens  and  cutting  would  be  extended  into  the  class  provision  in  future  planning.    The  Hub  clearly  articulated  true  child  initiated  learning.’  N  Antwis,  Callicroft  Primary  School.  

A  parent  expressed  her  views  on  the  impact  of  the  Hub  on  her  child:  

‘We  cannot  praise  the  Hub  enough  and  the  benefit  it  has  brought  to  our  child’s  life,  not  just  at  school.  The  opportunity  to  share  ideas  in  smaller  groups  really  helped  to  bring  her  out  of  her  shell  and  her  confidence  grew.  We  would  come  home  from  work  and  the  first  thing  she  would  want  to  talk  about  was  what  she  had  done/made  in  the  hub  that  day.  The  hub  was  instrumental  in  providing  a  blank  canvas  for  our  child  to  express  herself  and  allowed  her  imagination  to  grow.  

When  we  ask  our  child  about  her  memories  of  the  hub,  she  tells  us  it  ‘made  me  feel  great’  and  ‘happy’  and  that  it  was  ‘a  place  to  make  things  and  make  new  friends’.  This  is  exactly  how  we  hoped  she  would  feel  about  school.’  J.  Stewart  2013  

In  terms  of  impact  on  our  practice  and  provision,  we  are  now  even  more  responsive  to  children’s  lines  of  enquiry  and  we  all  feel  more  confident  in  standing  back  and  being  invisible,  enabling    the  children  to  have  their  own  voice.  All  staff  have  a  better  understanding  of  what  true  child  initiated  learning  looks  and  feels  like  and  one  member  of  the  staff  commented  ‘I  couldn’t  imagine  working  in  an  environment  that  did  nor=t  let  children  be  what  they  want  to  be.  I  learn  so  much  more  about  the  children  and  they  far  exceed  what  I  assume  they  can  or  can’t  do.  It  is  amazing’.S.Phelps,  2013  

Our  whole  environment  looks  very  different  in  comparison  to  two  years  ago.  As  it  is  so  constantly  responsive  to  children’s  interests,  shown  through  their  play,  the  time  that  we  spend  creating  areas  of  learning  is  less,  but  is  more  valued  by  the  children  as  they  own  the  environment,  they  value  their  environment  and  they  can  see  that  we  value  their  interests.    Below  is  an  example  of  how  we  created  a  role  play  outside  of  the  Hub  to  support  children’s  play  during  the  time  they  were  being  observed  in  the  Hub.  

   

 

 

 

 

Impact  outside  of  the  unit  includes:  

• A  hub  in  year  1  -­‐  It  was  interesting  that  during  the  transition  from  reception  to  year  1,  the  children  assumed  that  there  would  be  a  Hub  in  the  year  1  unit,  which  there  wasn’t  initially!  Parents  were  commenting  that  their  children  the  children  were  disappointed  that  there  was  not  a  similar  space  for  the  children.  This  was  a  delight  to  hear  but  also  a  concern  that  the  children  felt  so  passionately  about  their  own  learning  space  and  were  sad  not  to  have  it.  I  decided  that  I  would  work  with  the  year  1  team  and  build  a  Hub  space  for  the  children  to  continue  to  access  and  in  September  this  year  the  children  came  into  year  1  with  a  Hub  ready  for  them  to  use.    

 The  hub  in  Year  1  

 

The  hub  in  Year  1  is  slightly  more  progressive  in  that  children’s  documentation  inside  is  more  scaffolded  in  areas  and  there  is  more  of  an  expectation  that  children  are  beginning  to  document  their  thinking,  designs  and  questions  etc.  on  the  wall  of  paper  inside.    

Visitors  to  our  school  have  not  only  commented  on  their  observations  of  the  children  engaged  in  learning  in  the  Hub,  but  also  the  impact  that  this  has  had  on  practice  within  their  settings  following  their  visit  to  our  Unit.  The  following  is  a  comment  on  impact  from  a  Head  teacher  who  informed  me  of  not  just  the  development  of  the  hub  in  the  reception  classes  but  the  impact  on  her  staff:  

‘The  real  impact  has  been  a  new  engagement  with  trying  out  ideas  and  not  being  afraid  to  keep  learning.  It  really  feels  like  the  school  is  “turning  a  curve”  and  the  impact  of  the  visit  to  The  Mead  was  instrumental  in  this.  Thank  you.’  

Further  clarification  of  our  practice  and  provision  came  from  Ofsted,  who  visited  the  unit  several  times  to  observe  how  the  children  engaged  in  learning  and  the  impact  that  the  environment  was  having  on  the  children’s  attainment.  As  a  result  of  this  our  research,  and  elements  of  our  practice  that  have  extended  from  this  research,  were  videoed  by  HMI  and  this  footage  is  now  used  to  support  training  of  Ofsted  inspectors.  This  has  resulted  in  many  colleagues,  locally  and  nationally,  wanting  to  visit  our  reception  unit.  A  high  demand  of  requests  to  visit  The  Mead  had  led  to  us  inviting  other  practitioners,  including  Head  teachers,  teaching  assistants,  FS  leaders,  FS  class  teachers  and  EYs  advisers,  to  planned  training  days  where  we  can  share  our  practice,  research  and  vision.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feedback  from  colleagues  who  attend  these  days  have  commented  on  how  they  want  to  create  a  Hub  in  their  classroom  and  can  see  how  this  space  is  invaluable  in  enabling  children  to  be  truly  creative  and  innovative  in  their  own  learning  space.  

‘Many  thanks  for  such  an  interesting  and  informative  day.    Alison  and  I  were  able  to  observe  an  excellent  model  for  learning,  which  we  will  be  sharing  with  our  schools.  It  was  very  reassuring  to  see  that  child  initiated  play  was  high  on  the  agenda  but  not  to  the  expense  of  quality  teaching  and  learning.    Please  thank  your  teaching  staff  for  making  us  feel  so  welcome  and  the  time  they  took  to  engage  with  us.’    Susan  Hodgson,  Advisory  Teacher  -­‐  Foundation  Stage  School  Improvement  Service  and  Targeted  Support,  Dagenham.  (9th  Dec  2013)    Baseline  attainment  of  children  on  entry  into  reception  in  September  2012  was  considerably  lower  than  that  of  the  previous  year.  Analysis  of  FSP  data  at  the  end  of  the  year  (June  2013)  showed  the  following  in  some  of  the  areas  of  learning  in  comparison  to  the  previous  year’s  data:       2012  (%  of  children  

achieving  or  exceeding  ELG)  

2013(%  of  children  achieving  or  exceeding  ELG)  

Reading       81%  Writing     78%  Maths  (Numbers)     78%  (ELG  in  Number  this  

year  is  much  more  difficult  to  achieve  due  to  raised  expectations  by  the  end  of  the  FS  year)  

   PSED     75%      (Need  to  talk  to  NP  to  get  first  column  info  –  only  got  6+  sp’s  –  I  will  explain  tomorrow!!!!)    

 

“If  you  can  light  the  spark  of  curiosity  in  a  child,  they  will  learn  without  any  further  assistance,  very  often.  Children  are  natural  learners”.  K  .Robertson  

The  only  reason  for  identifying  percentages  of  attainment  in  the  above  curriculum  areas  is  due  to  the  fact  that  others  are  more  difficult  to  compare  due  to  a  change  in  the  Foundation  Stage  Curriculum  in  September  2012.    As  mentioned,  baseline  data  for  this  cohort  showed  lower  attainment  on  entry,  but  the  progress  and  end  of  year  attainment  is  improved  on  the  previous  year.  I  am  not  able  to  say  that  this  is  purely  because  of  the  Hub  and  all  that  has  developed  from  it,  but  we  as  a  team  strongly  feel  that  the  Hub  and  the  raised  profile  of  child-­‐  initiated  learning    has  impacted  positively  on  every  child’s  attainment  across  all  aspects  of  the  curriculum.  The  children  who  were  engaged  in  the  research  project  are  now  in  Year  1  and  the  teachers  have  commented  how  much  more  confident  the  children  are  than  in  previous  years  and  that  they  are  much  more  willing  to  take  risks  in  their  learning  and  problem  solve  without  the  support  of  an  adult.  

Growth  

Cultivating  quality  and  innovation  

Our  ultimate  aim  is  to  enable  other  practitioners,  parents  and  children  to  engage  in  what  can  only  be  considered  as  the  most  powerful  form  of  play.  As  a  result  of  the  research,  the  following  are  some  of  the  ways  in  which  we  are  transferring  this  knowledge  to  others  and  also  what  we  know  are  next  steps.    

• Early  Years  at  The  Mead  days  continue  to  run  and  are  now  planned  for  2014/2015.  • Our  Early  Years  Collaborative  Network  of  colleagues  in  the  local  network  continues  to  explore  how  

child  initiated  investigation  and  exploration  can  affect  the  teaching  and  learning  of  mathematics.  This  is  already  underway.  

• Sharing  EYs  practice  and  research  with  PGCE  students  who  work  within  the  school  with  a  mind  to  influencing  their  practice  when  they  have  classes  of  their  own  in  the  future.  

• The  strong  desire  to  share  our  research  to  a  larger  audience,  nationally.  Aspects  of  our  research  have  recently  been  shared  to  colleagues  during  local  conferences  and  in  a  neighbouring  LEA  network  meeting  for  FS  leaders.  

• Involving  parents  more  in  the  documentation  and  processes  of  the  Hub  and  engaging  them  more  in  our  research  

• In  our  own  setting,  slowly  develop  a  Hub  in  every  year  group!