Last academic year the EEF were looking for settings willing to share their practice in the area of Physical Development.
Here at Charles Dickens we leapt at the opportunity as we felt it would help us continue to focus on the work we had started and gave us an opportunity to refine our approaches and practices.
We delivered training to all our nursery staff to refresh and build on the knowledge we had around Physical Development. The EEF also ran training going through the approaches they wanted to exemplify with video content.
The idea of being filmed was not very popular with practitioners at first but those who took the plunge felt the process was very useful for their own professional development and confidence. Others appreciated being able to look closely at the adult role finding this a powerful tool to reflect on their own practice.
We are fortunate to have worked with dance, gymnastics and PE specialists over the years which has helped us build the confidence to explicitly teach a variety of physical skills.
Viv was the first brave practitioner to volunteer being filmed teaching the skill of jumping from two feet. She set up planks on floor level within a free flow environment where both two year olds and three year olds had free access to the activity. She presented the skill as a challenge for the children to try by demonstrating and suggesting according to the ability of the individual. A mixed group joined, had their learning extended and were encouraged to repeat the newfound skill independently.
Our dance teacher used music and a transport scenario to encourage movement. The whole team joined to support and encourage all children to have a go regardless of their starting points.
We often use playdough without any rolling pins or cutters to encourage building more strength in the hands and arms which over the years we have found to work really well as an intervention for those children struggling to hold tools. Squishing, squeezing, rolling, pinching, pulling and flattening need to be modelled and encouraged with enthusiasm for strength and control to be developed. Although there is not much research in this area, practitioner experience has led to great approaches such as dough disco.
Using: large paint brushes and water to ‘paint’ the fences and doors, chalks to make trails on the ground, ribbons to make swirls in the air, brooms to clear sand and water from the floor and brushes to make art on huge paper are all activities we encourage to help children develop the control and strength needed to make marks, representations, pictures and start to form letters.
The three approaches identified by the EEF as supporting children to make five months accelerated progress in Physical Development are:
- Promoting physical activity
- Teaching the skills needed for moving and handling
- Teaching the skills needed for mark making and letter formation
Once we saw the videos of the approaches in action the EEF helped identify the practices and drew our attention to these with their spotlight videos that
break down the skills an adult uses and develops in their own practice. Chunking the approaches down in this way really helped us identify small steps for each of us to work on.
The practices in action you can see exemplified are:
Modelling/ Demonstrating/Showing
Narrating/ Explaining/Reminding/Repeating/Commenting
Reflecting/ Learning from mistakes/Breaking down the sequence
Extending/Targeting/Suggesting/Adapting
Being involved in the development of the videos for the Evidence Store has enabled our team to really break down the skills we use as practitioners to support all children with their Physical Development and especially focus on those children who have gaps or lower starting points. It has helped us notice as we observe deeply how to support a child in the moment and give them the encouragement they need to reach the next stage of their development whatever their starting point.