Guidance on Care and Learning for the 0-2 Year Group

Structure

The day is structured around the children’s care needs. This structure in return gives children a sense of time and place giving meaningful purpose to the day. Following a recognised routine each day - with a keyteam known to the child -is essential in creating an environment in which children feel secure. Simply knowing what is going to happen next and with whom, limits any potential for anxiety. It is, therefore, important children are given meaningful recognition to times in their day.

In the Middle room for 0-2 year children we have our visual timetable which holds simple illustrations setting out the events of the day from beginning to end. This timetable is up on the wall for all children to see, access as they wish, and more importantly is talked about throughout the day as it helps the children think through their routines. The following is a list of the names given to each illustration used in the visual timetable and is given in the order it is used each day.
Free play, snack, sand play, water play, painting, get coats on, outside, nappy time, wash hands, story time, singing, lunch time, sleep, nappy time, snack, outside, tea time, nappy time, free play.

It is important also to have each day repeat as the one before.

In our First room for very young 0-2 year children the day is arranged around each child’s individual care plan to meet the ever changing needs of children in their first year of development. Most of the day is taken up with meeting the care needs of this young group.

The Nursery Environment and the Early Years Foundation Stage

The 0-2 year children have use of the First and Middle room. All of our play areas are set up to provide cross curricular learning opportunities meaning all areas of learning are integrated in to all parts of the nursery environment. Children have access to sand and water play in both the indoor and outdoor play areas. Communication, language and literacy; problem solving, reasoning and numeracy; to name two of the six areas of learning given in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) – being the curriculum guidance followed for all children from birth through to the first year in primary school at five years of age – the reception year. For more information on the EYFS please see www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eyfs

Play and Learning

There are several learning approaches that can be used by a Nursery. At The Green Door Nursery we practice free-flow, which as the name implies, gives children freedom to move and explore all areas within the nursery including the outdoor play area. Free flow is also described as ‘discovery time’. With this our aim each day is to place minimal restriction on activities for children with the exception of occasions where we have a safety need. For example there are separate garden times for 0-2 years and 2-5 years. Sometimes, also, we may need to limit numbers of children at an activity purely due to the type of the activity/and the resource used. Not all activities are suitable for a large group. Sometimes, therefore, children might have to wait their turn. There are also group times in the day such as story time.

So the free-flow method of learning is based on the principle of allowing all mobile children to develop play and choose toys independently with minimal adult intervention in a caring, safe and well-resourced play environment. The Free-flow approach develops independence in children as it is the child’s choice of play and interest which is taken as the lead in learning. When it is the child’s choice play is more meaningful and prolonged than that from an activity chosen for them. Most of our day is taken up with this self-selection process where toys are clearly labelled with words and pictures to support children’s choices and enhance learning.

The role of the keyworker here is to provide the well-resourced learning environment in which to observe the children at play and to take the given opportunities to extend learning. This is called scaffolding learning maximising the potential learning for the child without the Keyworker ‘taking over’ or ‘leading the play’ and through knowledge of the individual child. It is also about having the skill to know when this may be appropriate and how best to do this. Through day to day observation of the child/children’s interests Keyworkers plan and then build-in an adult led activity around the interest to further enhance learning. This may be done either with an individual child or as a group.

To help include parents in their child’s learning and give information on focus activities we send out Keyteam newsletters once each term. Sometimes we may ask for help with activities and request items such as photos. If you wish to read about your child’s day you can look at the notice board in the hallway outside the Middle room which includes a write up of the activities done throughout the day, and a copy of the adult led activity for both rooms. There is also further information about your child’s day in our day book which is put out for you to read in the children’s play area at the end of each day for the Middle room. There is space in the day book for parents to make comments. For instance it is important we know about a child’s interests at home to build a connection between home and nursery. Knowing about home life plays an important part in the child/parent/home/keyworker/nursery relationship. The day book can be used for this purpose along with giving us any written feedback you wish. For the First room each child has a blue book which is used each day for information about their care. This book is given to parents at the end of each day to take home and we ask parents to bring the book in each time their child attends so we both have a written record of the child’s care and an additional means of communicating any changing needs.

We also hold learning reviews for the older 0-2 year children usually shortly before they are due to move over to the older 2-5 year group. We keep a Learning Diary on each child to keep a record of their development. We will ask you to complete a written questionnaire after the learning review so we can make an assessment of our performance. Please note parents can request a review at any time during the year if they wish to discuss any aspect of their child’s learning. The keyworker may also offer or request a review if there is a care or learning need to discuss with you.