No child should be excluded or disadvantaged because of his or her race, culture or religion, home language, family background, special educational needs, disability, gender or ability. To be effective, an early years curriculum needs to be carefully structured. A well planned and well organised environment gives children rich and stimulating experiences. It provides the structure for teaching within which children explore, experiment, plan and make decisions for themselves, thus enabling them to learn, develop and make good progress. There should be opportunities for children to engage in activities planned by adults, and also those which they plan or initiate themselves.
Children learn through play and in other ways.
They do not make a distinction between 'play' and 'work', and neither should practitioners. Children need time to become engrossed, work in depth and complete activities. Practitioners must be able to observe and respond appropriately to children, informed by a knowledge of how children develop and learn. Well planned, purposeful activity and appropriate intervention by practitioners will engage children in the learning process, and help them make progress in their learning. Practitioners need to ensure that all children feel included, secure and valued.