Meta-Skills 

Resources  

“Meta-skills are innate, timeless, higher-order skills that create adaptive learners and promote success in whatever context the future brings. From birth, children use their meta-skills as they test and explore the world around them, and it is these meta-skills that act as a key to unlock the development of other transferable and technical skills. Therefore, it is important that as children and young people progress through their education, practitioners make meta-skills explicitly visible and create opportunities for learners to recognise, understand and explore their meta-skills development.“

Meta-skills Progression Framework, Skills Development Scotland

What does FOCUSSING look like in Early Years?

    • Displaying continuous, interest and involvement in a task over a period of time
    • Identifying objects and events as the same or different, and sorting objects into groups
    • Accepting changes in their environment in order to be able to focus on a task.

What does INTEGRITY look like in Early Years?

    • Showing kindness to others and being sensitive to others’ feelings
    • Being aware of how their actions can affect others
    • Recognising that we have similarities and differences but are all unique.

What does ADAPTING look like in Early Years?

    • Asking lots of questions and being curious about the world around them
    • Recognising simple problems and talking about solutions with others
    • Being flexible and resilient when faced with novel or unexpected situation

What does INITIATIVE look like in Early Years?

    • Beginning to plan, and enjoying completing a given task
    • Both following instructions and making their own instructions for others to follow
    • Showing confidence through expressing themselves through actions such as making marks, role play, joining games, singing or dancing with a little prompting if needed for support.

What does CURIOSITY look like in Early Years?

    • Showing excitement, enjoying the unexpected, the unusual and surprise in learning
    • Asking lots of questions about what they are learning
    • Observing and asking questions about the world around them
    • Using sources of information such as books, digital technologies, family and peers to find relevant information
    • Carrying out self-directed learning and recognising and resolving related problems.

What does CREATIVITY look like in Early Years?

    • Expressing themselves through different types of play such as mark making, role play, making things, tinkering with objects, singing and dancing
    • Being willing to take on new challenges
    • Engaging well in creative play with friends, for pleasure and as a form of creative expression
    • Asking questions about the wider world.

What does SENSE-MAKING look like in Early Years?

    • Recognising and describing visual and audio patterns and differences
    • Recognising problems and talking about solutions
    • Asking and answering questions in relation to stories, play and learning in relation to themselves, families and friends
    • Listening and understanding what is being said in the context of play, stories and real-life events
    • Identifying and naming objects or events as the same or different, and sorting objects into groups

What does CRITICAL THINKING look like in Early Years?

    • Working with a focus, asking and responding to questions to clarify what they are doing
    • Making simple predictions and seeing possibilities
    • Asking different types of questions
    • Summarising and reflecting on their learning
    • Using materials from their environment and coming up with their own ideas on how to solve problems.

What does COMMUNICATING look like in Early Years?

    • Enjoying listening to and recalling stories with friends, and using their imagination to tell their own stories
    • Expressing themselves through play and storytelling, and talking about their learning
    • Talking about memories and experiences
    • Learning to use words to suit different purposes

What does FEELING look like in Early Years?

    • Showing kindness and being sensitive towards others
    • Being aware of how actions can affect others
    • Expressing genuine concern and responsibility for others and the wider society

What does COLLABORATING look like in Early Years?

    • Engaging in creative play and working well with friends and less familiar people
    • Listening to others in a group
    • Being able to join in with others in a one-to-one situation or part of a group
    • Being aware of how their actions can affect others
    • Learning to use words to suit different purposes.

What does LEADING look like in Early Years?

    • Listening to other people’s ideas and positively influencing and motivating others during play and learning
    • Identifying and justifying their own course of action
    • Being confident in different situations/contexts
    • Making suggestions in group play.