We believe that good universal provision starts with adjusting the environment to reduce or remove barriers to enable all learners to develop their social, emotional and learning potential. Consideration must be given to:
Effective strategies for supporting children are known by all staff, including all of our support staff, office staff and premises staff. We have implemented a consistent of approach across the whole setting/school to avoid confusion for our children.
Elizabeth Jarman visits Rudston Primary to evaluate our work in Communication Friendly Spaces
Elizabeth Jarman the founder of Communication Friendly Spaces approach visited our whole site this week to help us to evaluate the work we had done so far and to help move us on further. Elizabeth was very positive about our Learning environments from Bright Stars across to our Y6 children’s spaces. She also challenged us all to improve our learning environments to develop exciting and challenging work spaces which will develop all our learners and gave us some good ideas to make our site more family friendly.
Elizabeth led training for our school staff and staff from a variety of local schools. We all took away a new understanding of how our learning environments impact on our children’s development.
Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS)
The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS) (External Website) is an internationally recognised tool which enables Early Years settings to evaluate their environment and provision, and to identify clear steps for development in order to improve outcomes for children.
Originally designed in America, ECERS was the tool used in the UK national research study, the ‘Effective Provision of Pre-school Education’ (EPPE) Project which studied the progress and development of 3,000 children from different types of Early Years settings. The EPPE findings demonstrated a correlation between the quality of provision, as measured by ECERS, and children’s development and future achievement.
Settings can make a difference by integrating good language models to stimulate children in their development. This will include using a range of activities including:
In Bright Stars and the Children’s Centre we are also considering the spaces for our youngest children by using the ITTERs environmental rating tool for Infants and Toddlers. Staff are undertaking a project with Elizabeth Jarman and other Liverpool schools to develop Communication Friendly Spaces and approaches for two year olds.
Pupil Voice activities
Our pupils took the photographs below to illustrate which areas they think are important to our learning environments.
Principles of our approach to the learning environment at Rudston Primary.
Our aim is that the physical space should connect with the underpinning pedagogy of the setting. It is essential to tune into the environment from the learner’s perspective.
To do this, it is really important to observe, reflect and then make informed decisions about the way that children interact with the environment, if a developmentally appropriate, responsive learning space is to develop to meet the needs of those individuals, reflecting their preferred contexts for learning.
The learning environment is a teaching and learning tool. It is a holistic approach, which involves examining practice based on the key areas of Physical environment, Resources and Adult Input.
The principles of Communication Friendly spaces and the aims for our learning environments are to provide –
How does the Communication Friendly approach to learning environments enable our children to learn and fulfil their needs?
Basic needs – Physical needs of our learners
Psychological needs
Self-fulfillment needs and personal esteem
the Impact of Communication Friendly spaces.
What we wanted to do
In each classroom we have created a Reading area that is comfortable and encourages all children to read for pleasure.
Impact evaluation – implementation
How we did it
Communication Friendly Spaces QuestionnairesStaff 2013/14 | Strongly agree | Agree | Slightly agree | Disagree strongly | ||||
Understand principles of CFS | 80 | 20 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Confident in Practice | 80 | 20 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Respond to pupils ideas and needs | 60 | 40 | 0 | 0 | ||||
The learning environment is calm and conducive to talk | 70 | 30 | 0 | 0 | ||||
The learning environment enables independent learning | 70 | 30 | 0 | 0 | — | |||
Working walls are in place and children are using | 60 | 20 | 20 | 0 | ||||
Children accessing reading areas for purpose and pleasure | 100 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Children’s work is on display and valued | 70 | 30 | 0 | 0 | ||||
There are spaces for class, groups or individuals | 90 | 10 | 0 | 0 | ||||
PUPILS QUESTIONNAIRE 2013/14 | YES | SOMETIMES | NO |
I can find things easily in my classroom to help with my learning | 90 | 10 | 0 |
I am well behaved in our school | 90 | 10 | 0 |
The learning environment is calm and conducive to talk | 80 | 20 | 0 |
The learning environment enables independent learning | 70 | 30 | 0 |
Working walls are in place and I am using them | 50 | 50 | 0 |
I use the reading areas for purpose and pleasure | 60 | 40 | 0 |
My work is on display and valued | 60 | 30 | 10 |
There are spaces for class, groups or individuals | 70 | 30 | 0 |
Respond to pupils ideas and needs | 70 | 30 | 0 |
I use thinking maps to help me | 50 | 30 | 20 |
PARENTS QUESTIONAIRRE 2013/14 | YES | |
The school is welcoming, warm and friendly | 97 | |
Children are well behaved in school and high standards of behaviour are set | 89 | |
The learning environment is calm and conducive to talk | 96 | |
School supports the child’s personal development and well being | 99 | |
Does the school work hard to support attendance? | 96 | |
My child’s classroom has an attractive reading area | 86 | |
My child’s work is on display and valued | 89 |