The importance of PE Provision in Nurseries
We are now running sessions in Nurseries! It is so important for the children in Nursery to partake in PE sessions. Take a look below and find out why!
Nursery Learning, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is broken down into seven areas: 3 core areas and 4 other. The core areas are the key focus for the children’s development. The core areas are ‘Personal, Social and Emotional Development’ (PSED), ‘Communication and Language’ and ‘Physical Development’. The other areas are ‘Literacy’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Understanding the world’ and ‘Expressive arts and design’.
Each of these sections are split into sub sections too. PSED is broken down into ‘Making Relationships’, ‘Self-confidence and self-awareness’ and ‘Managing feeling and behaviour’. The communication one is broken down into ‘Listening and attention’, Speaking’ and ‘Understanding’. The physical one is broken down into ‘moving and handling’ (which is the area we focus on the most), and ‘health and self-care’. Literacy is broken down into ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’. Mathematics is broken down into ‘Numbers’ and ‘Shape, space, measure’. Understanding the World is broken down into ‘People and communities’, ‘The World’ and ‘Technology’. Expressive arts and design is broken down into ‘Exploring and using media and materials’ and ‘Being imaginative’. As much as we focus on the physical development, other areas will be touched upon too. Our assessment criteria only comes from the physical development section.
The sessions are typically between 30 minutes and an hour long and works to meet a number of milestones. Beccy worked in nurseries for a number of years, gaining her degree in Early Years in the process, and so has now created a curriculum for the Early Years sessions around the following areas: Introduction to PE, Gymnastics, Dance, Striking and Sending, Athletics and Invasion Games. The milestones are age appropriate with the EYFS, with our teaching starting with 2 year olds. We use the criteria to assess the children’s development by the full term, September to Christmas, January to Easter, April to July rather than half termly to allow the children time to develop. When children are younger, they develop at a faster rate, and so this period allows them to experience two sets of activities before the assessment lesson again.
During each of the half terms there is one sport for the six weeks or so. When we start the academic year in September we usually start with ‘Introduction to PE’. During this half term we do fun lessons to get to know the children and teach them the very basics. One session we do is about The Gruffalo as we know the children love that book. You can find the lesson plan and resources here. The children love the Gruffalo session, especially searching for the characters around their space. They knew the story inside out and so were able to get a lot more from the session. The other areas are more sport specific and link to what they will learn at school in Reception, especially if they partner with us.
According to Gov.uk (Overweight children – GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures) 21.3% of 4-5 year olds are overweight, which is a shocking figure, and shows why movement and PE provision in Nurseries is so vital. To have children doing exercise and enjoying it is key. If a child enjoys movement and exercise, they will not see it as a chore and weight loss journey only. It will help them enjoy life and be active, as our mission says – to inspire and enthuse both adults and children to enable them to develop and sustain a lifelong passion for sport and activity. It is key for children to partake in activity, and find it fun, rather than seeing it as a punishment or purely a tool to maintain weight.
If you run a Nursery, or have a Nursery joined to your school, or if you are a parent who wants their child to be more active in their Nursery setting, contact us now at admin@tlesportscoaching.co.uk.
We are more than happy to provide information and maybe even some lesson plans to get you started today.