Discover how continuous provisions into Y1 enhances early years education. Samantha Smith, from Flanshaw School, supported by Early Excellence, shares her expertise pf developing continuity of provision for children aged 3-6years in Nursery, Reception and Year One, the progression and challenge added to the continuous provision resources and how the learning resources are organised

Built on our track record of helping schools to achieve their vision of outstanding practice and provision, at Early Excellence we work closely with CEOs and Leading Principals to design bespoke programmes of support to improve teaching and learning in EYFS & KS1.

Samantha Smith is the Foundation Stage Leader at Flanshaw Junior, Infant and Nursery School in Wakefield. They now have continuous provision from nursery right through into year one, so it was important they got the resources right from nursery, looked at the progression in reception and into year one, and considered what challenge they were offering for the children. They really worked as a team, starting off by doing an audit of provision, assessing what resources they currently had, and then looking at how they could enhance resources and extend children’s learning further.

They examined how they label the resources from nursery right through into year one, focusing on how they display the resources and the labelling. For example, they started with just having the picture labels in nursery and added numbers in reception. They might say they have eight pencils, so the children were using mathematical language when putting things away at tidy-up time in reception. In year one, they looked at more in-depth mathematical language to challenge the children further through the labels. The resources were kept the same; for instance, in the small world area, they kept the small world blocks the same but examined how to progress the use of figures from nursery right through into year one. In nursery, they used familiar people, progressing in reception to people who help us, adding a bit of fantasy, and then incorporating more fantasy as they moved into year one. This way, children could extend their story, language, and develop their own ideas through storytelling in year one.

For them, the importance of creating a high-quality learning environment from nursery right through into year one was about giving children independence from an early stage, allowing them to develop their own ideas, carry out their own ideas, develop their interests, and become more independent as learners. It also aimed to help them become more resilient and willing to try new things. They found that many children were initially hesitant to try, so this approach promoted a more ‘have a go’ attitude, especially as the children moved into reception. Having already experienced the provision in nursery, the children knew exactly how to use it and could further develop their ideas. This led to much deeper learning through the ideas they created in nursery, the challenge of the resources provided, and extending that further into year one.

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