Creating High-Quality Spaces
What are high-quality spaces?
Spaces are one of the three key elements central to assuring high-quality within an ELC setting.
Realising the Ambition states that:
- Thought needs to be given to the opportunities that different learning spaces provide.
- Practitioners should use creative solutions to provide a variety of spaces for children.
- Children should have everyday access to interesting indoor and outdoor spaces.
- Physical spaces both indoors and outdoors should be constantly reviewed to incorporate a wide range of responsive, familiar, and exciting new play opportunities.
- Practitioners should observe how children use and interact with both indoor and outdoor spaces, and respond to their actions.
- Materials within spaces should be open-ended to support the development of children’s creativity.
Visual Impact Considerations
The learning space should be visually subtle and tranquil without riots of colour or patterns. Additionally, the environment should be welcoming, homely, and challenging for learners.
Consideration should be given to the use of colour, lighting, and textures within the learning environment.
Colour
Research shows that colour can have a direct physical and emotional effect on children. Whilst using some colour can promote positive effects, practitioners must be aware of overwhelming and over-stimulating children.
Within settings a neutral background is favourable, especially on walls, pinboards, and display boards. This allows colour to come from displays of children’s art work, interactive interest areas set-up to stimulate discussion and learning, and from the children themselves.
Lighting
The aim of nursery room design is to create a ‘home-like’ environment. Well considered, appropriate lighting can help practitioners achieve this. Effective use of lighting can enable areas to be defined, for example a lamp in the story or home corners, or the use of low-level lighting within quiet, relaxing spaces. Adjustable lighting also enables both adults and children to adjust the level of lighting depending on their needs.
Textures
Developing cosy and comfortable spaces are central to the aspiration of creating a ‘home-like’ learning environment.
Softness is important for reducing noise levels and reverberation, especially in settings with hard floor coverings. The use of tablecloths, curtains, throws, drapes, wall hangings, rugs, cushions, and upholstered furniture all help to create a warm, welcoming environment.
Young learners at different developmental stages often require different sensory inputs which can be enhanced by textural elements within settings.
Structuring the Learning Space
Below are some key questions to consider when structuring a learning environment:
- Are there clearly defined areas in which children can access both busy and calm, noisy and quiet experiences?
- Do you make and value space for displays? In what ways are the displays interactive and reflective of children’s current interests and enquiries?
- Are there areas for children to work with each other or on their own?
- Can practitioners explain potential learning within the core areas of the room?
- Is it clear to children what the purpose of particular areas are?
- Where are particular areas located, what are they next to, and why?
- Is the environment attractive and will it engage children?
- Where and how is ‘staff clutter’ stored? Does it disrupt the flow of the room?
What should be included within a high-quality learning space?
Continuous provision is the constantly available provision that children should have full everyday access to within an ELC environment. In Fife, this is referred to as the ‘Core Provision’. The Fife Core Provision Document can be found here.
Core Provision identifies elements that lend themselves to the play experiences and opportunities that enable children to meet the learning outcomes contained within Curriculum for Excellence. It is based on theoretical research and encompasses all curricular areas.
There are 28 elements of Core Provision that should be available to children throughout the session:
Within Outdoor Learning spaces, children should have opportunities for:
- Discovery/Investigation
- Building
- Transport
- Physical
- Creativity
- Shelter
- Nature
Points for Reflection
Children need space and time to run, jump, climb, build, crawl, balance, stretch, and make. They need to move in and around objects both outside and indoors. It’s important that they have the choice to do this when they need to regulate themselves. It’s important to give children daily access and opportunity to be outside in nature, experiencing all weathers and seasons in comfortable suitable clothing.
Additionally, Realising the Ambition states that children should be afforded space and time to build construct and take things apart over and over again, as well as opportunities to learn about music and dance through exploration of tunes, rhymes, rhythms, timing, pattern and movement.
