At The Pines, we believe play is a fundamental part of childhood; as we meet our children’s need for play, they are empowered as learners and are enabled to succeed in all areas of the curriculum. For this reason, we use continuous provision from Nursery through to Year 2.  

There are 5 core principles in the way we use continuous provision:

• Environment
• Use of Time 
• Role of the Adult 
• High Expectations
• Language and Vocabulary

Environment

The purpose of the environment is to provide a third teacher. The classroom and wider school environment enables children to succeed by providing resources which challenge, inspire and support learning.  

Classroom environments: 

• are tidy and well-organised, promoting self-selection of resources and independent learning skills 

• are carefully resourced so that children have many opportunities for repeated practise of the skills and knowledge they have acquired 

• are clearly zoned to create ‘communication friendly spaces’ 

• maximise productivity and learning opportunities  

The inside and outside learning environments are equally valued for the learning opportunities they bring however they do look and feel different. Outside spaces focus on gross motor-development, co-operation and negotiation skills, large scale construction and imaginative play. Outside spaces are also designed to meet some of children’s proprioceptive needs (sense of self-movement) and vestibular needs (sense of balance and spatial orientation). 

Both inside and outside, carefully chosen enhancements are used to extend children’s learning and spark curiosity. As children move through the EYFS and into KS1, enhancements become more focused on the increasing demands of the curriculum and provide scaffolds for children to further explore their learning across a range of subjects.  

Use of Time (Make Every Second Count) 

At The Pines we aim to ‘make every second count’. High levels of engagement are critical for maximising learning time and the timetables in EYFS and KS1 reflect the need for children to become deeply absorbed in their self-directed learning through continuous provision. In practice, this means a typical day for a child in EYFS and KS1 will comprise:  

• Extended periods of time in continuous provision 

• Sharply focused teacher-led whole class lessons (the length of these will depend on children’s age and stage of development).  

• Small group work with a focus on a particular area of the National Curriculum 

• 1-1 or small group interventions working on particular areas of need as identified by assessments (summative or formative) 

Role of the adult 

The role of the adult is varied and diverse when teaching through the use of continuous provision. Adults in the classroom facilitate learning in a wide range of ways. Sometimes this is through direct whole-class teaching or group work but there are also many times when adults skilfully move learning forward through modelling, encouraging, explaining, resourcing, scaffolding and joining the children in their play. It is important to note that at the heart of these high-quality interactions is the overarching principle from the Early Years, ‘positive relationships’.

High Expectations

During their time in continuous provision, children are expected to lead their own learning. Adults have high expectations of children’s behaviours for learning and reinforce these regularly. Children are required to use and apply many of the skills they have learnt in the wider curriculum to support their self-led time for example they may choose to make a 'squishy' using the sewing skills learnt in DT or they may need to write a sign for their large construction using their sentence writing skills. 

Language and Vocabulary 

Each classroom provides a language rich environment where children are encouraged to communicate for many different purposes; negotiate and problem solve; experiment with new vocabulary and enjoy a wide range of texts. In nursery and reception, children are taught new vocabulary linked to their overarching topics and their 'writing club' curriculum. In KS1, children are taught subject specific vocabulary as part of their curriculum work. During whole class and individual reading sessions, children collect new and interesting vocabulary and all classrooms are filled with high-quality texts to promote a love of reading and language.