Nicola Daly, a Year Two teacher at Westwood Primary School, and Hannah Hines, a Year One teacher at the same school, believe they are fortunate to work in the way they do. They are pioneering a new approach for their academy and area. The children are learning through their own interests and natural curiosity, which they believe is the best way for children to learn. The children are motivated, inspired, and most importantly, leading their own play.
Nicola echoes Hannah’s sentiments, stating that it is crucial for children to choose through their own self-initiated learning. The children select what they want to write about and what activities they want to pursue, making their learning purposeful. Nicola believes this is the ideal approach to teaching.
Previously, teaching was more formal, with children seated at tables. Although they made the lessons fun and engaging, the new approach is entirely different. Initially, this change was daunting and nerve-wracking, with concerns about its effectiveness. However, Nicola asserts that this method has proven to be the most valuable experience in her teaching career.
Hannah concurs, emphasising the importance of trialling the approach. Starting in Year One, they observed its success and then implemented it in Year Two with children who were ready to learn. The children are engaged and filled with a sense of wonder, which is what teachers strive for. The primary goals are ensuring the children are happy, learning, and making progress, which they believe is being achieved.
Reflecting on the process, Hannah admits she was initially nervous but now finds it extremely worthwhile. Despite challenges, the team continually reviews and reflects on their practice. They began by focusing on the learning environment; the continuous provision is the bread-and-butter to the children’s learning. Ensuring good progress from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to Key Stage 1 was crucial, and they worked diligently to achieve this. The result is a successful continuous provision that is continually reviewed and refined, providing the necessary challenge for Key Stage 1.
Nicola highlights the importance of differentiating between EYFS, Year 1, and Year 2. It involved examining the curriculum to determine the specific needs of each year group. Continuous provision areas in each year were tailored to allow each child to achieve their potential.
Nicola shares her experience, noting that teaching Year Two in a more formal way in the past involved extensive preparation of exciting lessons on fundamental topics like place value, addition, subtraction, and fractions. However, she often found that children forgot the material by the next term, resulting in repetitive teaching with no lasting impact. Since September, she has observed that children retain what they have learned because it surrounds them all day every day. This continuous learning environment has significantly impacted children’s progress.
Nicola states:
“For me, it’s that continual learning in the environment which has had a massive impact on children’s progress. And I’m so confident for the end of the year when the results come out. And I know that progress is going to be made.”
Hannah concludes:
“The skills that they’re embedding now will go through the rest of the school with them. So as the children move from year group to year group to year group, they will have such fundamental inquiry skills, researching, asking high quality questions, high order thinking. They’ve got those skills and they will only continue to progress as they move from each year group as this approach continues to grow throughout our school.”
To enquire about support to transform your KS1 with Continuous Provision contact Early Excellence or e-mail nikki@earlyexcellence.com