I’ve been asked on numerous occasions why I love teaching in the Early Years; what makes it special? it’s very hard to capture in words. The first five years of a child's development are so important. Within these early years a child will experience crucial changes in their health, wellbeing, physical and cognitive development.
At New Beginnings children spend the majority of their time playing and pursuing their own interests. We provide a balance of adult directed and child initiated activities. Children have access to any resources they wish to use, they can play inside and outside, and their games can take any direction they like. This is real play: it’s child-initiated and restricted only by rules about safety and respecting others, and it’s how young children learn. When children demonstrate a high level of involvement in what they are doing, their brain is at its most active, and this is when progress occurs.
As a result of this child-led learning environment, the role of a teacher is varied and unpredictable. We spend our day observing children playing and joining in with their games, assessing what they can do, and planning interactions with them which will move their learning on. Whilst we plan for learning based on what we want children to learn we also recognise that learning can occur on a moment-by-moment basis because children are immediate. If they want to know how something works, they want to know now; if they want to tie a knot in the string around their favourite role play mask to stop it from falling off and ruining their game, they want to do it now: and so we capitalise on their moment of curiosity and enthusiasm to teach them what is relevant to them at that time.
These moments occur many times every day for every child. One of the greatest privileges of being a teacher is seeing the progress children are continually making in all areas of learning, and seeing our own role in this: modelling behaviour, facilitating, encouraging them, demonstrating how to do something, explaining something or modelling language, asking questions and introducing new ideas. Often these successes don’t produce concrete or tangible results, but the process of learning has still undeniably taken place and is clear to see. Young children learn best when they are given the time to complete a task, have the support of an adult who knows when to step in, fill secure and safe to trust those adults working with them and that we always remember that small children need their teachers to provide opportunities where knowledge and skills can be fully understood and embedded as secure foundations for future learning and retention.
It's an amazing feeling to be part of a child's learning journey. To see a child gain confidence in walking , riding a bike, turning the pages carefully to their favourite book, when you know that they have been practicing hard to achieve the new skills and knowledge they have gained. It will always be the little things to me that drive my passion for Early years.