🔴 At Lillian de Lissa Nursery School we extend children's learning by using a 'planning in the moment' approach. Planning in the moment is all about seizing the moment for children to progress.When children learn in the moment, they have the opportunity to be highly engaged and motivated in their learning. This way of planning relies on skillful practitioners using high quality interactions to draw out the children's knowledge and build on it there and then (in the moment). This means that the practitioners have used skills to observe what the child is doing and needs to do next, assessed the teachable moment from the child's perspective and are skilled enough to know when to intervene and when to stand back and observe. Planning in the moment is all about capturing the moment of engagement and running with it to ensure the children progress.
🔴 This way of working means that all written planning is retrospective -there is little to no forward planning as the adults follow the interests of the children. Each practitioner records what they have done to help the children progress on target tracker observation, focus child obseravtions and planning in the moment record sheets, displayed in our classrooms. This ensures that teaching is monitored and any reflected upon regularly. We also have regular Walk Around meetings as part of our staff meeting time. This is where practitioners discuss what is motiavting their children to learn within the whole nursery environment. Both indoors and outside.
🔴 A pioneer of 'planning in the moment' is Anna Ephgrave, who explains why this approach is so effective: "Babies and young children are experiencing and learning in the here and now, not storing up their questions until tomorrow or next week. It is in that moment of curiosity or fascination- the 'teachable moment' - that the skillful practitioner makes a difference. By using this cycle on a moment-by-moment basis, the adult will be always alert to individual children (observation), always thinking about what it tells us about the child's thinking (assessment), and always ready to respond by using appropriate strategies at the right moment to support children's well-being and learning (planning for the next moment)."
🔴 We have a spacious open plan environment where there are few, if any, 'set activities' are laid out on the tables. The children select what they want to do in each area and collect the resources they need. The principle is that resources are accessible to the children and they are varied, open ended and high quality. This enables children to have the opportunity to select the resources to support their chosen activity, rather than being limited to what a practitioner may think they need.
