Free learning time

‘Free learning time’ is the term used to indicate to the children that it is free flow learning. In this time, children can access all designated areas of the indoor and outdoor environments. The placement of staff is decided through a rota to ensure coverage of the setting and therefore the safety of all children.

If you were to walk around the setting during free learning time you would see:

• Children playing and exploring with intent and purpose, sometimes alone and sometimes with peers.
• Open ended provocations, small world and messy play activities that facilitate communication and language development
• Ample opportunities for ‘free writing’; children are purposefully engaged in mark-making and later writing that is important to them whilst simultaneously practising their phonics skills and fine motor control
• A calm (but rarely silent!) setting which is buzzing with purpose and enthusiasm
• Children self-selecting and exploring the environment with confidence and decisiveness. They look after resources and care for their learning environment
• Staff referring to and enacting the school’s Behaviour Policy, including reinforcing ‘Back to Green’ emotional regulation strategies
• Some staff carrying out set tasks. Here staff will be giving children one-to-one or group support in consolidating and extending their learning. Whilst staff complete set tasks they will also be aware of other children and where appropriate will pause their work to attend to the needs and learning of other pupils
• High quality interactions between adults and children. Challenge and ‘learning moments’ emerge during free learning time through sustained shared thinking, open-ended questions and moving children on by introducing new vocabulary.
• Where possible, adults will be promoting and modelling the use of ‘Standard English’ as a way of encouraging pupils to make steps towards speaking in full and standard sentences

Input teaching

Carpet input teaching aims to ignite the interest of children and equip them with the ideas, knowledge and skills to extend their learning within the environment. Whole class sessions are often structured around a narrative or problem-solving context that is introduced through a learning question. A sense of continuity between the context in an input and the activities on offer in the provision are apparent, due to our topic-based curriculum.

If you were to observe an Early Years carpet session at Thornhill you would see:

• A positive approach to behaviour management and emotional regulation through the use of Back to Green strategies
• High levels of engagement, evident through the children’s focused and responsive behaviour towards the adult.
• Children participating in sharing their ideas or joining in with songs and phrases
• Makaton signing. Key concepts are delivered using Makaton signs and/or memorable rhymes and songs. This embeds key learning in children’s memories.
• A flexible approach to duration. As the year progresses, the duration of carpet sessions increases in line with the children’s development.
• High quality modelling of letter/number formation and sentence structure.
• Cultural content which is familiar to the majority of pupils. It is important to acknowledge and celebrate ways of life which are different to the majority of pupils in as many aspects of the EYFS provision as possible.