Planning in the Moment
Introducing Planning in the Moment: A child initiated approach to learning.
What is ‘in the moment’ planning?
- Less forward planning or pre-planned activities.
- Follows the interests of the child/children at all times.
- Challenge and development happens on the spot whenever an occasion arises. This may last from a few seconds or over a period of time.
What does this mean for my child?
- More learning through play.
- More time to be children.
- Less expectations to sit at the table and repeat an activity.
- More opportunities to explore through their imagination.
- More opportunities to develop own sense of challenge and risk.
Children learn the most through deep engagement in play. This is also why we dislike calling children out of their play to come and do an adult activity that they are unlikely to fully engage with. We will be encouraging children to take risks in all elements of their play – whether that be physical, mental or personal challenges.
What about Progress?
- We will monitor our observations to make sure we are covering all areas of Curriculum for Excellence.
- More focused, short interventions will be used if a child is struggling with something in particular.
- We will be using children’s next steps and our knowledge of target areas to use this in our language during their play.
- Children make more progress because they are fully engaged with their own learning.
Anna Ephgrave coined the phrase ‘in the moment planning’ and introduced this in her school, Carterhatch. The Early Years was graded ‘Outstanding’ in 2013 and in the most recent 2018 OFSTED inspection. We are following her guidance and have been lucky enough to attend her training course recently. We hope to be able to apply Anna’s theory and practice across the nursery in the next year and that you will be able to see the benefit to your child.