Child-led planning: Planning in the moment

Since September 2019, we have adapted a new system of planning. In the past we have always chosen a topic for a term/half term and planned the activities around the topic.

In the new system we no longer pre-plan a topic; rather we remain ‘in the moment’, observing, and interacting with the children and planning the activities based on their interest.

We would like to work closely with the parents to support the children’s learning and development. We value parent’s knowledge and understanding of their children and would like them to share this with us.

Each week we choose 3 children as a ‘focus child’. A consultation sheet is sent home with the child prior to their turn as focus child and we ask parents to fill the form in as much detail as possible and return back to the Pre-school.

‘Focus children’ will be observed by all staff on that week, and activities will be planned based on the information provided by the parents, children’s interests, and of course their stage of development.

This approach would truly accommodate “child-centred” planning, allowing us to focus on the children’s interest, linking their home learning to Pre-school learning.

Of course, observation, interaction, and supporting children’s learning and development is happening at all times whether a child is on their focus week or not, we would just focus a little bit more on the focus children each week.