Curriculum Planning in Early Years

Curriculum Planning in the Early Years

Sue Asquith, Early Childhood Consultant, explores what a curriculum is and the importance of a curriculum by design and not chance.

I see a lot of social media posts about developing a curriculum, asking people to share their curriculums and planning. Please read this blog if you are sat in front of a planning document with a totally blank mind. This blog has been signed off by the Department for Education (DfE) to feature on the Foundation Years website, so you can be reassured about what you are reading!

What is a curriculum?

There are many different definitions of the word curriculum and often the word is associated with schools and the national curriculum. For the purposes of this blog I quote Development Matters (DfE, 2021, pg 9):

The curriculum: what we want children to learn.

The curriculum is a top-level plan of everything the early years setting wants the children to learn.
Planning to help every child to develop their language is vital.
The curriculum needs to be ambitious. Careful sequencing will help children to build their learning over time.
Young children’s learning is often driven by their interests. Plans need to be flexible.
Babies and young children do not develop in a fixed way. Their development is like a spider’s web with many strands, not a straight line.
Depth in early learning is much more important than covering lots of things in a superficial way’.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework states:

‘Practitioners need to decide what they want children in their setting to learn, and the most effective ways to teach it. Practitioners must stimulate children’s interests, responding to each child’s emerging needs and guiding their development through warm, positive interactions coupled with secure routines for play and learning. As children grow older and move into the reception year, there should be a greater focus on teaching the essential skills and knowledge in the specific areas of learning. This will help children to prepare for year 1’.

People often refer to the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (EYFS) as the curriculum; however, as the title suggests, the EYFS is a framework. ‘The EYFS sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the right foundation for good future progress through school and life’ (DfE 2024, pg 7).You will find learning and development information in sections 1 and 2 including the:

Educational programmes
Areas of learning
Early learning goals
Characteristics of effective teaching and learning

However, to help children to learn and develop throughout their early years you need to be clear about what you want them to learn. Identifying what you want children to learn and how you will implement it – this is your curriculum.

Curriculum Intention

A top-level plan of everything that you would like children to learn – early childhood is a very big window involving lots of learning, knowledge and skills as children grow from new-borns to infants, develop into toddlers and then pre-school children. It helps to break early years development up into smaller windows of development and skills. For example, consider what is age and stage appropriate for 2-year-olds and then some of the next steps for the unique children in your care (I will aim to cover next steps in another blog). Once you have decided what you need to teach you can decide how to teach it (this can be a mix of adult guided and child-initiated learning opportunities and a lot of it is often spontaneous and cannot be planned weeks in advance)! I have written some curriculum intention documents to help you (they will save you hours of work)!! Please visit the Products page of this website; these curriculum documents are Word documents so you can personalise them to make them bespoke for your setting!

Implementing/teaching your curriculum

The EYFS is mandatory for every early years setting in England and it is also implemented by British schools, nurseries and kindergartens throughout the world. However, how it is implemented in each school/setting is unique. You might be all doing similar things just now as you interact with the children in your setting; however, exactly what you are teaching, how and when will differ to provide an appropriate learning journey for the children considering:

Your curriculum intent
The needs and interests of the current cohort of children
Individual children’s next steps
Any topic or festival that you might want to cover
The balance of child initiated and adult guided learning
Children’s lived experiences (family events, parties, holidays, etc)
Anything that might have attracted children’s attention in the moment
Children’s comments or questions in the moment etc

‘The EYFS is about what children learn, as well as how they learn. Effective practice is a mix of different approaches. Children learn through play, by adults modelling, by observing each other and through adult-guided learning’ (DfE, 2024, pg 7).

The statutory framework for the early years foundation stage also states:

This framework does not prescribe a particular teaching approach. Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, relate to others, set their own goals, and solve problems. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play and learning that is guided by adults. Practitioners need to decide what they want children in their setting to learn, and the most effective ways to teach it. Practitioners must stimulate children’s interests, responding to each child’s emerging needs and guiding their development through warm, positive interactions coupled with secure routines for play and learning’ (DfE, 2024, pg 17).

It is important that children follow their interests and initiate their own play and learning. Children also need to play and explore, for active learning, to be creative and experiment as well as time, space and resources/opportunities to apply and consolidate new learning. However, they sometimes also need input from a more knowledgeable other. Someone to extend their learning, model a knew skill, add a new resource, introduce new vocabulary or a new concept. Adults need to decide if and when to interact for the greater good to help children gain new knowledge skills.

I attended a Foundation Years live event in May 2024 where an Ofsted HMI said, “if you’re doing the right thing for the children, you are doing the right thing for Ofsted”. Everyone needs to be confident and knowledgeable about their curriculum, child development and how to support the learning and development of the children in their care.

Much of children’s learning occurs spontaneously as they play and explore, but educators should ensure that each activity is guided by clear learning intent. While the activity itself may not be fully planned, the learning intent should be thoughtfully considered in advance. If adults are aware of the overview of what knowledge and skills you want children to learn (e.g. introducing new vocabulary, developing fine motor skills, etc) they can seize the teachable moments. For example, a child finds a snail in the garden; the adult might have to tell the child that it is a snail. If the child already knows this the adult may decide to ask a question “I wonder why the snail has a shell” or comment “Wow, look at the spirals on the shell!”

They might decide to look at it under a magnifying glass and later discuss where to put the snail so that it is safe. Meanwhile, the children are gaining an understanding of the world, have opportunities to play and explore through active learning which might bring opportunities to promote problem solving and learn new vocabulary. Meanwhile other children come to see what all the excitement is about. This casual encounter with the snail leads to the adult using a book about bugs and slugs and then later the children are in a bug hunt with magnifying glasses, a clip board, pencil and a camera. I love to see these moments play out when carrying out peer observations or on consultancy visits. However, there also needs to be an overview of what you would like children to do and know. Learning can’t be left to chance. We need to know what children have already learned, what you would like them to know/learn next and identify any gaps in knowledge and skills. We then need to plan (it does not have to be written planning) to help children progress, ensuring coverage and breadth of experience making links to previous learning where relevant.

You need to embed a curriculum by design, not by chance as gaps in knowledge and skills can go on to impact the rest of our lives. Adults need to be confident in identifying children’s starting points, what their next steps are now as well as in the bigger picture and how you plan to help get them there.

Impact/achievement

I have seen so many effective methods of planning and some settings plan in the moment responding to children’s interests and comments with little or no written planning documents. Ofsted inspectors won’t expect any written curriculum planning, as per Early years inspection handbook – GOV.UK, but they will speak to managers, practitioners and childminders about your curriculum intent, children’s interests, their progress/impact etc.

Please visit my website to find out more about my training. You can book face to face or live on-line training for your staff team or pay for a single person, single access to my pay to view webinars or enquire about multi-staff discount access: