Guidance, ideas and examples to support schools in developing their curriculum, pedagogy, enrichment and support for more able learners, within a whole-school context of cognitively challenging learning for all. Includes ideas to support curriculum development, and practical examples, resources and ideas to try in the classroom. Popular topics include: curriculum development, enrichment, independent learning, questioning, oracy, resilience, aspirations, assessment, feedback, metacognition, and critical thinking.
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Posted By Amanda Hubball,
30 January 2025
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Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Alfreton Nursery School, outlines the use of “thinking booklets” to embed challenge into the early years setting.
At Alfreton Nursery School, staff believe that children need an intrinsic level of challenge to enhance learning. This challenge is not always based around adding symbols to a maths problem or introducing scientific language to the magnet explorations. An early years environment has countless opportunities for challenge and this challenge can be provided in creative ways.
Thinking booklets: invitations to think and talk
Within the nursery environment, Alfreton has created curriculum zones. These zones lend themselves to curriculum progression, whilst also providing a creative thread of enquiry which runs through all areas. Booklets can be found in each space and these booklets ask abstract questions and offer provocations for debate. Drawing on the pedagogical approach Philosophy for Children (p4c), we use these booklets to ensure classroom spaces are filled with invitations to think and talk.
Literacy booklets
Booklets within the literacy area help children to reflect on the concepts of reading and writing, whilst promoting communication, breadth of vocabulary and the skills to present and justify an opinion.

For example, within the “Big Question: Writing” booklet, staff and children can find the following questions:
- What is writing?
- If nobody could read, would we still need to write?
Alongside these and other questions, there are images of different types of writing. Musical notation, cave drawings, computer text and graffiti to name but a few. Children are empowered to discuss what their understanding of writing actually is and whether others think the same. Staff are careful not to direct conversations or present their own views.
Maths booklets
Maths booklets are based around all aspects of the subject: shape, size, number. . .
- If a shape doesn’t have a name, is it still a shape?
- What is time?
- If you could be a circle or a triangle, which would you choose and why?
Questions do not need to be based around developing subject knowledge, and the more abstract and creative the question, the more open to all learners the booklets become.
Children explore the questions and share views. On revisiting these questions another day, often opinions will change or become further embellished. Children become aware that listening to different points of view can influence thinking.

Creative questions
Developing the skills of abstract thought and creative thinking is a powerful gift and children enjoy presenting their theories, whilst sometimes struggling to understand that there is no right or wrong answer. For the more analytical thinkers, being asked to consider whether feelings are alive – leading to an exploration of the concept “alive” – can be highly challenging. Many children would prefer to answer, “What is two and one more?”
Alfreton Nursery School’s culture of embracing enquiry, open mindset and respect for all supports children’s levels of tolerance, whilst providing cognitive challenge and opportunities for aspirational discourse. The use of simple strategies to support challenge in the classroom ensures that challenge for all is authentically embedded into our early years practice.
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Posted By Amanda Hubball,
11 November 2024
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Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Alfreton Nursery School, explores the power of metacognition in empowering young people to overcome potential barriers to achievement.
Disadvantage presents itself in different ways and has varying levels of impact on learners. It is important to remember that disadvantage is wider than children who are in receipt of pupil premium or children who have a special educational need. Disadvantage can be based around family circumstances, for example bereavement, divorce, mental health… Disadvantages can be long-term or short-term and the fluidity of disadvantage needs to be acknowledged in order for educators to remain effective and vigilant for all children, including more able learners. If we accept that disadvantage can impact any child at any time, then it is essential that we provide all children with the tools they need to navigate challenge.
More able learners are as vulnerable to the impact of disadvantage as other learners and indeed research would suggest that outcomes for more able learners are more dramatically impacted by disadvantage than outcomes for other children. A cognitive toolbox that is familiar, understood and accessible at all times, can be a highly effective support for learners when there are barriers to progress. By ensuring that all learners are taught metacognition from the beginning of their educational journey and year on year new metacognition skills are integrated, a child is empowered to maintain a trajectory for success.
How can metacognition reduce barriers to learning?
Metacognition supports children to consciously access and manipulate thinking strategies, thus enabling them to solve problems. It can allow them to remain cognitively engaged for longer, becoming emotionally dysregulated less frequently. A common language around metacognition enables learners to share strategies and access a clear point of reference, in times of vulnerability. Some more able learners can find it hard to manage emotions related to underachievement. Metacognition can help children to address both these emotional and cognitive demands.
In order for children to impact their long-term memory and fully embed metacognitive strategies, educators need to teach in many different ways. Metacognition needs to be visually reflected in the learner’s environment, supporting teachers to teach and learners to learn.
How do we do this at Alfreton Nursery School?
At Alfreton Nursery School we ensure that discourse is littered with practical examples of how conscious thinking can result in deeper understanding. Spontaneous conversations are supported by visual aids around the classroom, enabling teachers and learners to plan and reflect on thinking strategies. Children are empowered to integrate the language of metacognition as they explain their learning and strive for greater understanding.
Adults in school use metacognitive terms when talking freely to each other, exposing children to their natural use. Missed opportunities are openly shared within the teaching team, supporting future developments.
Within enrichment groups, metacognition is a transparent process of learning. Children are given metacognitive strategies at the beginning of enhancement opportunities and encouraged to reflect and evaluate at the end. Whether working indoors or outdoors, with manipulatives or abstract concepts and individually or in a group, metacognition is a vehicle through which all learners can access lesson content.
We use the ‘Thinking Moves’ metacognition framework (you can read more about this here). Creative application of this framework supports the combination of metacognition words, to make strings of thinking strategies. For example, a puppet called FRED helps children to Formulate, Respond, Explain and Divide their learning experiences. A QUEST model helps children to follow a process of Questioning, Using, Explaining, Sizing and Testing.

Metacognition supports children of all abilities, ages and backgrounds, to overcome barriers to learning. Disadvantage is thus reduced.
Moving from intent to implementation
Systems and procedures at Alfreton Nursery School serve to scaffold day to day practice and provide a backdrop of expectations and standards. In order to best serve more able children who are experiencing disadvantage, these frameworks need to be explicit in their inclusivity and flexibility. Just as every policy, plan, assessment, etc will address the needs of all learners – including those who are more able – so all these documents explicitly address how metacognition will support all learners. To ensure that visions move beyond ‘intent’ and are fully implemented, systems need to guide provision through a metacognitive lens.
Metacognition is woven into all curriculum documents. A systematic and dynamic monitoring system, which tracks the progress and attainment of all learners, ensures that children have equal focus on cognition and emotion, breaking down barriers with conscious intent.
At Alfreton Nursery School, those children who are more able and experiencing disadvantage receive a carefully constructed meta-curriculum which scaffolds their journey towards success, in whatever context that may manifest itself. Children learn within an environment where teachers can articulate, demonstrate and inculcate the power of metacognition, enabling children to be the best that they can be.
How is your school empowering and supporting young people to break down potential barriers to learning and achievement? Read more about NACE’s research focus for this academic year, and contact us to share your experiences.
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Posted By Amanda Hubball,
17 April 2023
Updated: 17 April 2023
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NACE Associate Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Challenge Award-accredited Alfreton Nursery School, explains why and how environmental education has become an integral part of provision in her early years setting.
1. What’s the intent?
The ethics of teaching children of all ages about sustainability is clear. However, teaching such big concepts with such small children needs careful thought. The intention at Alfreton Nursery School is to stimulate an enquiring mind and to nurture children to believe in a solutions-based future.
Exposure to climate change from an adult perspective is dripping into our children’s awareness all the time. At Alfreton Nursery School we believe it is so important to take the current climate and give children a voice and a role within it. The invincibility of the early years mindset has been harnessed, with playful impact.
2. How do I implement environmental education with four-year-olds?
Environment
Just as an effective school environment supports children’s mathematical, creative (etc) development, so our environment at Alfreton is used to educate children on the value of nature. The resources we use are as ethically made and resourced as possible. We use recycled materials and recycled furniture, and lights are on sensors to reduce power consumption.
Like many schools, we have adapted our environment to work with the needs of the planet, and at Alfreton we make our choices explicit for the children. We talk about why the lights don’t stay on all the time, why we have a bicycle parking area in the carpark and why we are sitting on wooden logs, rather than plastic chairs. Our indoor spaces are sprinkled with beautiful large plants, adding to air quality, aesthetics and a sense of nature being a part of us, rather than separate. Incidental conversations about the interdependence of life on our planet feed into daily interactions.
Our biophilic approach to the school environment supports wellbeing and mental health for all, as well as supporting the education of our future generations.
Continuous provision and enhancements
Within continuous provision, resources are carefully selected to enhance understanding of materials and environmental impact. We have not discarded all plastic resources and sent them to landfill. Instead we have integrated them with newer ethical purchasing and take the opportunity to talk and debate with children. Real food is used for baking and food education, not for role play. Taking a balanced approach to the use of food in education feels like the respectful thing to do, as many of our families exist in a climate of poverty.
Larger concepts around deforestation, climate change and pollution are taught in many ways. Our provision for more able learners is one way we expand children’s understanding. In the Aspiration Group children are taught about the world in which they live and supported to understand their responsibilities. We look at ecosystems and explore human impact, whilst finding collaborative solutions to protect animals in their habitats. Through Forest Schools children learn the need to respect the woodlands. Story and reference literature is used to stimulate empathy and enquiry, whilst home-school partnerships further develop the connections we share with community projects to support nature.
We have an outdoor STEM Hive dedicated to environmental education. Within this space we have role play, maths, engineering, small world, science, music… but the thread which runs through this area is impact on the planet. When engaged with train play, we talk about pollution and shared transport solutions. When playing in the outdoor house we discuss where food comes from and carbon footprints. In the Philosophy for Children area we debate concepts like ‘fairness’ – for me, you, others and the planet. And on boards erected in the Hive there are images of how humans have taken the lead from nature. For example, in the engineering area there are images of manmade bridges and dams, along with images of beavers building and ants linking their bodies to bridge rivers.
3. Where will I see the impact?
Our environmental work in school has supported the progression of children across the curriculum, supporting achievements towards the following goals:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development:
- Show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge
- Express their feelings and consider the feelings of others
Understanding the World:
- Begin to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things
- Explore the natural world around them
- Recognise some environments that are different from the one in which they live
(Development Matters, 2021, DfE)
More widely, children are thinking beyond their everyday lived experience and connecting their lives to others globally. Our work is based on high aspirations and a passionate belief in the limitless capacity of young children. Drawing on the synthesis of emotion and cognition ensures learning is lifelong. The critical development of their relational understanding of self to the natural world has seen children’s mental health improve and enabled them to see themselves as powerful contributors, with collective responsibilities, for the world in which they live and grow.
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Posted By Amanda Hubball,
20 February 2023
Updated: 20 February 2023
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NACE Associate Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Challenge Award-accredited Alfreton Nursery School, shares five key approaches to embed metacognition in the early years.
At Alfreton Nursery School metacognition has been systematically embedded across the whole curriculum for the last three years. Through the use of an approach constructed by Roger Sutcliffe (DialogueWorks) called Thinking Moves, we’ve successfully implemented an innovative approach to learning.
When we talk about the progression of mathematical understanding we have a shared language. We all understand what it means to engage in addition and subtraction. Phonics, science . . . all areas of learning have a common linguistic foundation.
However, when it comes to the skills of thinking and learning, there is no common language and the concepts are shrouded in misconception. Do children learn visually, kinaesthetically . . . ? Are there different levels to learning? Based on the belief that we are all thinking and learning all of the time, Thinking Moves has been implemented at Alfreton Nursery School. Thinking Moves provides the language to explain the process of thinking and has thus provided a common framework on which to master learning.
1. Develop and model a shared vocabulary
A shared vocabulary, used by all staff and children, has provided the adults with a tool to explain teaching, and the children with a tool to aid learning. Crucially, the commonality in language means that learning is transparent. For example, when children explain what comes next in a story, they are using the A in the A-Z: thinking Ahead. During the story recall children are using B: thinking Back. The A-Z of Thinking Moves supports children to consciously choose and communicate the thinking strategies they intend to use, are using, or have used to achieve success.
Teaching staff build on the more commonly used Thinking Moves words, whilst subtly introducing less familiar terms. The use of synonyms within conversation, to accompany the language of Thinking Moves, supports both adults and children to use the words in context.
“I’m going to think ahead, cos I need to choose the bricks I need to build my rocket.”
2. Embed metacognitive concepts in the learning environment
The learning environment critically supports the children’s use of metacognition. With each word comes a symbol. These symbols are used to visually illustrate Thinking Moves. Children use these symbols to explain what type of thinking they are engaged in and what they need to do next.
The integration of the symbols into the classroom environment has ensured that there is conscious intent to implement metacognition within all areas of the curriculum. Teachers use the symbols as prompts. Children use the symbols to help them articulate their thinking and as an aid to knowing what strategies will help them further.
Through immersing children in the visual world of metacognition, all children – regardless of age and stage of development – are supported in their learning.
3. Break it down into manageable chunks
The A-Z includes some words which slide easily into conversation. Other words are less easily integrated into everyday speech. In order to ensure that a variation of language is incorporated throughout the curriculum, specific areas of the curriculum have dedicated Thinking Moves words. For example, Expressive Art and Design have embraced the metacognitive moves of Vary, Zoom and Picture. This ‘step by step’ strategy gives teaching staff the confidence to learn and use the A-Z in small chunks.
Over time, as confidence grows, the use of metacognitive language becomes a natural part of daily discourse. Whether in the staffroom over lunch, planning the timetable or sharing a jigsaw, metacognition has become a part of daily life.
4. Use to support targeted teaching across the curriculum
Metacognition is embedded throughout continuous provision and is accessed by all children through personalised interactions. Enhancements are offered across the curriculum and metacognition forms a vehicle on which targeted teaching is delivered. For example, by combining thinking moves together, we have created thinking grooves. By using certain moves together, the flow of thinking is explicit.
Within our maths enhancements we use the maths QUEST approach. A session begins with a Question, e.g. “How many will we have if we add one more to this group?” Children Use their mathematical understanding and Explain what they will need to do to solve the problem. The answer is Sized, “Are there more or less now?”, and then this is Tested to establish the consistency of the answer. Maths QUESTs now underpin our mathematical enhancements, allowing children to consciously use maths and metacognition simultaneously.
5. Embed within progression planning
When looking at the curriculum and skill progression across the school, it has been helpful to consider which Thinking Moves explicitly support advancement. For children to progress in their acquisition of new concepts, they need to know clearly how to access their learning. Within our planning and assessment systems, areas of metacognitive focus have been identified.
For example, within literacy we have raised our focus on the Thinking Move Infer. For children to gather information from a story is a key skill for future progression. Within science we emphasise the need to Test and within music we support children to Respond. Progression planning now has a clear focus on cognitive challenge, as well as subject knowledge.
Embedding metacognition in the early years supports children to master their own cognition and gives them a voice for life.
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Posted By The Mulberry House School,
06 July 2022
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Naomi Parkhill is Deputy Headteacher for Pastoral Care at The Mulberry House School, which recently attained the NACE Challenge Award for the third time. In this blog post, she shares some of the ways in which the school ensures challenge is embedded throughout all aspects of the school’s provision, for all learners.
At The Mulberry House School we are firm believers that challenge is not something that should be saved solely for the most able pupils, but should be readily available for all. With our school ethos being “We reach high to be the people we want to be, respect ourselves and others and enjoy each new challenge”, it is of utmost importance to us that challenge permeates the very centre of who we are as a school. We have a broad curriculum and value each subject equally. All of our children are encouraged to find their own strength and adopt a growth mindset across both curricular and extracurricular activities.
Here are our top five tips for putting challenge at the heart of your school.
1. Know what excellence looks like
To challenge pupils to produce the very best work they are capable of, the teacher needs to ensure that they have got a firm understanding of what this looks like, both for the subject/area they are delivering and for the age of the children. This needs to incorporate both knowledge and skills. We have spent a lot of time as a school collaboratively deciding on the standards that we are aiming for; it is important that all staff agree on this in order to provide consistent challenge for all pupils.
2. Share this vision explicitly with learners
Once a decision has been made about what excellence looks like, it is important that we share this with our pupils. It is important to note that this is not limited to sharing examples of excellent work; the children need to know what it is that makes that piece of work excellent. This can be achieved through effective modelling, in which the teacher explains the thought process of an ‘expert’ in the subject as they work, helping to raise the standards of work for all. Another way to empower the children to strive for excellence is through carefully constructed success criteria, which act as a set of instructions to achieve the learning objective, again supporting challenge for all.
3. Empower learners to embrace new challenges
As a growth mindset school we wholeheartedly believe that anyone can improve if they try. A central part of our Mulberry House Way is “Try your best to be your best”. Through instilling this learning attitude in our children from a young age, they are prepared to accept challenges and give everything their maximum effort. Scaffolding plays a key role in supporting our children to achieve excellence. This allows us to provide each child or class with what they need to ensure that they produce the highest quality of work that they can. Allow the children to practise getting things right, then over time remove this support; this will lead to them creating a high standard of work independently.
4. Provide challenging extension and enrichment opportunities
Our recent case study exploring “Enrichment vs Extension” as a means of providing challenge for all – submitted as part of our recent NACE Challenge Award reaccreditation – has been successful in supporting the “challenge for all” aims of the NACE Challenge Development Programme. The outcomes of this case study have enriched the quality-first teaching that we endeavour to deliver. This has, in turn, impacted favourably on our children’s outcomes. We have spent time researching the difference between extension and enrichment opportunities and gaining an understanding of the value of each. We plan and deliver lessons that are centred on enrichment opportunities, with extension activities supporting individual learners to either close gaps or take the next step in their learning.
5. Encourage children to share their opinions
Central to the development of each child across the curriculum is their confidence to share their opinions and thought processes. From an early age we believe it is important to enable our children to explain how they have reached an answer and so the focus is on this rather than simply just providing the “correct” answer. In essence, we have started to embed metacognition, thinking about one’s thinking, in our Key Stage 1 learning. The impact that this has had on both children’s attitudes towards learning and academic outcomes has been significant. We look forward to rolling this out through our EYFS classes and seeing the impact this has.
How does your school provide challenge for all? Contact us to share your experience.
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Posted By Keith Watson FCCT,
19 October 2020
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Dr Keith Watson, NACE Associate
I recently provided guidance to a NACE member school about provision for a very able child in the early years. This conversation confirmed in my thinking the importance of an individual education plan (IEP) for more able learners, just as we would create for SEN children.
At my previous school for many years the teachers wrote half-termly plans for all more able pupils, but this became too time-consuming and didn’t fit well with workload. However, we decided it did make sense to retain the plans for exceptionally able learners. So why was this, and what should be considered when using IEPs for exceptionally able learners? Here are some points to consider:
Look beyond labels: focus on the individual
If we think of exceptionally able students as those attaining significantly above their peers and being perhaps in the top 3-5% nationally then it provides a starting point. We need to be mindful of early labelling, of course, and indeed any form of labelling. We are dealing with an individual here. The point is we recognise extra provision, enrichment or approaches are needed.
Establish key aims and priorities
Having what I call the “game plan” is crucial. A plan could not list all the activities and nor should it, but it needs to establish the aims of the next half term or so in a broad sense. Is it to develop paired work? Is it to develop resilience? Or is there a specific curriculum focus such as cross-curricular writing? It may be all of these things but what is the priority? Knowing the priority helps take a little pressure off the teacher who may feel they have to achieve “everything” with this “amazing” pupil. It also helps when talking to parents and carers about what is being worked on.
Consider social, emotional and learning mindset needs
In creating a plan, the social and emotional aspects must be considered. There is a danger of isolation in both learning and socialising for the exceptionally able pupil. How well do they work in a group? How do they relate to others? This could be a priority.
Growth mindset can also be a consideration in writing an IEP. If the student is always succeeding, what happens when they fail? Do they go into their comfort zone and only attempt what is easily achievable? This led to a school with very high attainment giving their sixth form students problems that were unsolvable – not to trick them but to explore failure and the response to it. These wider learning elements and dispositions should be considered in IEPs for exceptionally able students.
Allow time and space for exploration
The IEP will also need to consider particular curriculum strengths. Where a learner’s knowledge is already significantly above their peers, thought needs to be given to how much the learning goes upwards or sideways. It is vital to ensure the student applies their learning. They need to create: books, blogs, vlogs, models and maps, and even a museum for the budding historians. This will need time and the IEP must reflect this. When do they get to take their passion and interest further? By the way, early years can teach everyone about that!
Takeaways…
So, what are my takeaways? Thinking through the game plan for the half-term helps everyone – including the student and parents/carers who should be involved – know where they are going. It gives purpose, intent and direction. The More Able Lead may also be involved as a mentor to help ensure the plan does not get lost in the busy life of a school. Most importantly, the IEP is a map of possibility and a source of celebration when progress is made. Who wouldn’t want that for their exceptionally able students?
Member view
“I found Dr Watson to be extremely helpful around my concerns about an exceptionally able pupil who has just entered our Reception class. First and foremost, he allayed our concerns that we were providing a suitable curriculum for him by reminding us that more than anything it was important for the child to be happy, healthy and enjoying his learning. He encouraged us to consider following the child's individual interests and to create a flow of broad experiences to challenge and deepen learning. We also valued his suggestions to provide lots of creative experiences such as making books, maps and models. In terms of numeracy, the pupil is already confident is using numbers to 1,000 and Dr Watson suggested resources such as NRICH or Rising Stars Maths for More Able to provide sufficient challenge. The child has a reading age of 11 years and we were concerned about taking him on too quickly through reading schemes. Dr Watson helpfully suggested to consider using poetry or resources such as 'First News' to provide broader reading experiences.” - Paula Vaughan, Headteacher, Pendoylan Church in Wales Primary
Additional support
- Log in to the NACE members’ site and visit our leading on more able page for guidance on the use of individual education plans (IEPs) and an example IEP template to adapt for use in your school.
- For additional guidance on support for exceptionally able learners, and growth mindset, log in and visit the NACE Essentials page, where you can download our guides on these topics.
- For 1-2-1 support on a specific area of policy or practice for more able learners, book a free support call as part of our next “Ask NACE” day.
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Posted By Emma Tibbitts,
07 September 2020
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Emma Tibbitts, NACE Associate
This article was originally published in our “beyond recovery” resource pack. View the original version here.
There are many challenges for EYFS settings this September. It has not been possible to make the usual extensive preparation that would have been carried out to support transition for children, parents and carers. Assessment sharing has been reduced, and with limited or non-existent opportunities to meet new children and families, practitioners will have very limited knowledge of each child. Added to this, many children will have higher anxiety levels than usual around change and separation from families this year, while the lengthy period of social distancing has heavily compromised opportunities to develop relationships, especially for the youngest children.
Government guidance for school reopening states:
“For children in nursery settings, teachers should focus on the prime areas of learning, including: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and physical development. For pupils in Reception, teachers should also assess and address gaps in language, early reading and mathematics, particularly ensuring children’s acquisition of phonic knowledge and extending their vocabulary.” – Guidance for full opening: schools (updated 7 August 2020)
Due to pressure to prioritise vulnerable and low-ability pupils, it is likely that many settings will have placed little emphasis on preparing to identify and support the more able. This is not new. At NACE, we regularly hear from school leaders and practitioners who are striving to improve provision for highly able young people but who face barriers to doing so, and this September will be no exception!
It remains important to address the myths and misconceptions surrounding this group, and to continue to ensure that even our youngest more able pupils are not overlooked, as they too are entitled to a high-quality education. Without appropriate challenge (too low, or too high or unsupported), a learner’s motivation levels will drop, frustration is increased, and children become in danger of coasting.
- Providing for more able learners is not about labelling, but about creating a curriculum and learning opportunities which allow all children to flourish.
- Ability can be revealed across a range of specific domains or more generally, and not only in traditional academic subjects.
An effective EYFS learning environment which carefully plans for and reflects the seven areas of learning is an excellent foundation for providing children with a variety of rich learning opportunities. However, current hygiene guidance will impact on the range and type of resources practitioners can now safely provide.
Could this be viewed as an opportunity to adopt a fresh creative licence to use and develop your practice in planning for a greater repertoire of open-ended activities? Research within EYFS shows that using the same resources in a variety of ways is effective in challenging pupils to develop their metacognition, similar to the principle of the mastery approach of “finding many different ways”.
The following set of questions could be helpful to think through when planning for or setting up a challenging learning activity:
- Does it reflect the interests and curiosity expressed by children?
- Have you spent time predicting how the children might interact with the resources you provide?
- How will you present the resources in an open and accessible way?
- How could you re-use familiar resources in different ways?
- How many opportunities will this activity give to enable children to make links to other learning or their own ideas?
A strong emphasis is also being placed on opportunities to learn outdoors, supporting requirements to ensure that only small groups of children are present at any one activity at a time. The government guidance reminds practitioners to “Consider how all groups of children can be given equal opportunities for outdoor learning.”
Maximising outdoor learning time presents a perfect opportunity to develop outdoor provision – a brilliant platform for planning in challenge and open-ended activities for more able learners too. Outdoor learning has always been valued and the EYFS curriculum highlights the importance and value of carefully planned, daily outdoor experiences for children’s physical learning and development. Frequent outdoor learning challenges give children the power to change their perspective – a key underpinning that fosters natural curiosity, active learning, playing and exploring, critical thinking, and creative problem solving – all the things children need to learn how to learn, as stated in the EYFS characteristics of effective learning.
In summary, it is right that much effort should continue to be focused on children’s wellbeing, but we must also ensure that all children (including the more able through quick and effective identification) are given the opportunity to meet their full potential on return to school in September.
Although some “normal” practice will need to be reviewed in order to meet COVID-19 guidance, the preparation and delivery of a broad and ambitious curriculum must not be delayed. There could be serious setbacks to children’s progress if too much emphasis is placed on proposed “catch-up curriculums”, particularly within the reception phase as this is the first stage of formal education for these children.
Unlike other year groups, our new school-starters won’t have missed out on any formal teaching prior to September. We know that it is our very youngest children that have the potential to develop at astonishing rates. It is at this stage where neural pathways need to be built which will enable them to make connections in their learning.
Get set to embrace these incredibly thirsty young learners, an opportunity that should not be missed!
Further questions to consider:
- How will you provide for the emotional needs and wellbeing of the children whilst ensuring that learning content is not delayed unnecessarily?
- How do you plan to identify more able learners starting with you this term?
- How will you need to adjust your physical learning environments to ensure compliance to guidance whilst still seeking to maximise learning engagement, including challenge?
- What is the vision for your setting? Where do you hope the children will be by the end of the half-term? How do you plan to achieve this? How will you ensure you have a clear direction, with the flexibility to respond to barriers imposed by the pandemic and the individual needs of all learners, including the more able?
Join the conversation: NACE member meetup, 15 September 2020
Join primary and EYFS leaders and practitioners from across the country on 15 September for an online NACE member meetup exploring approaches to the recovery curriculum and beyond. The session will open with a presentation from NACE Associate Dr Keith Watson, followed by a chance to share approaches and ideas with peers, reflecting on some of the challenges and opportunities outlined above. Find and more and book your place.
Not yet a NACE member? Starting at just £95 +VAT and covering all staff in your school, NACE membership offers year-round access to exclusive resources and expert guidance, flexible CPD and networking opportunities. Membership also available for SCITTs, TSAs, trusts and clusters. Learn more and join today.
Tags:
early years foundation stage
lockdown
physical education
resilience
transition
wellbeing
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