I recently delivered a session titled, ‘Primary Maths: Differentiation through scaffolding and adaptation’ at the #PrimaryEssentials conference on Saturday 8th May. Recordings of the event are still available for purchase here.

The talk focussed on the importance of high-quality differentiation that allows the vast majority of children within the classroom setting access to the same content with tangible real-life examples of how to do so. Instead of creating 30 different tasks/lesson plans for the 30 children in the class teachers should instead use strategies to ensure children are accessing age-related curriculum expectations. 

Skills progression has an important part to play in designing a well-rounded art curriculum but what does the term ‘skills progression’ actually mean?

In its most basic form, it is essentially advancing pupils through a series of simple steps that becomes progressively more advanced in order to develop proficiency in more complex skills.

An important part of the EYFS is purposeful play through physical means. Children are encouraged to be physically literate and should be encouraged to access situations where they are able to manage risk via energetic play. Instead of children recognising letters and sounds as they would in literacy terms; children instead build up a bank of movement. This starts first with learning simple actions which then progress into how those actions relate to each other leading to the creation of a vocabulary bank of movement and development of their own physicality.

Early Years Foundation Stage can seem overwhelming to those on the outside looking in. It’s a complex series of documents that places the child at the centre. All schools and Early Years providers who are Ofsted registered follow the EYFS. It is important to remember that EYFS applies specifically to England. To truly understand the complexities it needs to be understood that the entire foundation stage has been informed by some essential principles that are reflected throughout the framework.

Continuous provision is essentially all of the resources in the environment that have been provided by practitioners to extend the learning of the children in their care. Children are able to access these resources independently and safely, and use them to explore. They are chosen carefully and mindfully by the practitioner so that even in the absence of an adult the children are able to build upon learning.

The national curriculum’s coverage of art and DT in primary feels very vague. It barely covers a page and some of the statements are so broad it can be difficult to think about how that looks in terms of progression and learning.