Building on Firm Foundations

This chapter discusses the popular conception that working with young children is easy and of less significance than formal schooling, and to convince we that, as primary school teachers, we need to understand how and in what ways children learn in the early years, and the range of diverse experiences they are likely to have had on arrival in the primary school. It also offers a cautionary note: we acknowledge that a key aim of early years education is to build firm foundations for learning in the primary school and beyond. The debate about what constitutes an appropriate learning environment in the early years inevitably draws into its sphere the role of play. Early years practice is commonly associated with the term ‘developmentally appropriate practice’, a term that has particular currency in the USA, but has had a significant influence on early years education in the UK.