Early years principles into practice
In most cases, sound early years principles and practices are already in place in settings. The EYPP funding allows settings to review and refine what these principles mean to them. It may be useful to consider your understanding of what these principles are through discussions, professional reading and observation of your practice. What does sound […]
Measuring impact of the EYPP funding
When justifying your EYPP expenditure it will be important to monitor at two separate points ie a starting point and again after the intervention. There will be a range of ways that you are currently monitoring your practice as well as tracking children’s progress. These can all be used as evidence of the impact of […]
Outdoors and Active
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Outdoors and Active – an action research project commissioned by the London Borough of Newham – took practitioners from nurseries, schools, PVI settings and children’s centres on an eight-month long exploration of movement in 2- and 3-year-olds, which generated intriguing discoveries and practical, realistic changes to routines, resources and risk taking. Motivated by the shocking and […]
What to do
Busy modern lives are having a dramatic impact on the health and wellbeing of our youngest children. They play outdoors less, spend more time being transported in cars and pushchairs rather than walking, and are leading increasingly sedentary lives. At Newham, we wanted to tackle the rising obesity crisis in partnership with our early years […]
Top tips for physicality in the park
Little or no equipment is needed to get children active in the park – not even the play equipment that’s probably already there! If there is play equipment, encourage children to use it in new and challenging ways (eg walk up the slide, hang upside down from the monkey bars). For all of these actions, the Outdoors […]
Top tips for everyday physicality
Even everyday journeys and mundane chores can be used to encourage children to be more physically active. Here are some ideas, suggested by the Outdoors and Active project team: Use the stairs whenever you can. Start by encouraging children to use the stairs in the home or in flats, shops and when out and about. If […]
Boing! Whoosh! RolyPoly!
Toddlers need plenty of balance practice once they are up and walking. Each of the three semi-circular canals in the inner ear respond to movement in different planes. Types of movement enjoyed by toddlers and young children that help train the balance mechanism or vestibular system include: BOING… up and down movement on the vertical axis such as […]
Overcoming barriers
An early task for the Outdoors and Active action researchers was to identify the barriers to taking children out and about beyond the setting. Only by finding out what was preventing practitioners and parents from being more active with their children, could we come up with solutions. These were the obstacles that were identified most […]
Taking risks in play
Human beings are “hardwired” to take risks, from birth. Babies take their first independent breaths; they decide to try crawling and walking and then running; they try new foods; they see a tree and want to climb it. Sadly, an increasingly risk averse society is making physically active, playful risk taking ever more difficult for […]
Loose parts for physicality
Traditional fixed play equipment is not necessary for physicality; if it’s there, then great – use it. Most of the Outdoors and Active project settings had little or no money to spend on improvements to their play landscapes, so it was necessary to adopt an alternative approach to getting children physically active. That approach was […]