: Early Steps into Early Years Professional Development: Laying the Foundations Co-creating shared principles is the foundation for effective professional development in the Early Years.
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Early Steps into Early Years Professional Development: Laying the Foundations
Co-creating shared principles is the foundation for effective professional development in the Early Years.
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by North London Alliance Research School
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Kat Branco
Kat Branco is the Director of the North London Alliance Research School.
Kat and Laura explore how co-designing and agreeing shared principles of effective early years practice helps lay the foundations of a professional development programme on play-based learning that is built to last.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has been subject to contested viewpoints, theories and pedagogies over time, never mind the subjective and often personal and passionate opinions about early childhood development. One can argue it’s as muddy as the mud kitchen. However, there is emerging clarity in the recognition of the benefits of play-based, child-centric approaches – learning through play remains a vital component. These are underpinned by research evidence on principles of effective practice across the Guide to Effective Professional Development in the Early Years and the recently published EEF Guide to the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP).‘Developing quality practice’ features as a key section in the EYPP. A feature that we warmly welcome as research evidence tells us that “high-quality early education and care are good for all children, but the benefits for socio-economically disadvantaged children are even greater.” (EYPP, 2025)
Ponder this: how much time do you think a child spends learning through play?
Going on the early years exemplification of play-based professional development (or lack of), one would be inclined to say, not much. Furthermore, research in this field has centred on “staff-led activities or guided play” (EEF Early Years Toolkit, 2023). All very well and good, but play-based learning is far more multifaceted, encompassing more than this.
Slightly puzzling when set against the reality that children in an EYFS setting (hopefully!) spend the majority of their time engaged in play. Of course, there are some strong examples of play-based professional development ‘out there’, but few provide a comprehensive framework for implementation. We propose that this is a gap that needs addressing and where this blog’s focus will lie.
For play-based learning to be truly impactful, it must be facilitated by skilled practitioners and the professional development needs to be thoughtfully planned to support this. However, the range of experience and training within early years practitioners can often be varied. Despite this challenge, its importance cannot be overlooked as outlined by the following:
1) Play and child development –
a) Ofsted’s recent report ‘Strong Foundations in the First Years of School’ states, “poorly planned play keeps children busy but does not support their development” because “their hands and bodies are active, but their minds are not.” (Ofsted, 2024)
b) The Statutory EYFS framework states: “Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, relate to others, set their own goals, and solve problems. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play and learning that is guided by adults.” (EYFS Framework, 2024)
2) Evidence-informed Professional Development helps prioritise what matters – “Creating and delivering your own evidence-informed professional development enables you to respond to the specific context of your setting and prioritise what is most relevant for your disadvantaged children.” (EEF EYPP, 2025)
3) Play and the impact on learning outcomes – The EEF Early Years Toolkit highlights how there is a +4 months impact on learning outcomes when investing in play-based learning.
It is important that when implementing professional development within this field, the approach is not rushed. It requires careful planning and understanding of your school context, as well as a considered approach to the fit and feasibility within the school improvement plan.
In the ‘explore’ and ‘prepare’ phase of implementation of any approach, securing buy-in from all stakeholders involved is key. A behaviour that will help unite staff ”around what is being implemented, how it will be implemented and why it matters.” (A School’s Guide to Implementation Guidance Report, 2024).
This blog, the first of a series, will focus on laying the foundations for developing effective professional development in play-based learning. A programme that was informed by evidence based approaches, outlined in the Guide to Effective Professional Development in the Early Years on providing quality education and care for young children. Below you can see the full programme, containing a balanced design of mechanisms enabling practitioners to build knowledge as well as practice and refine skills over time.
Session 1 was about ‘preparing, reflecting and planning ’ through co-creating shared principles of play-based learning. In trying to surmount the stubborn ‘knowledge-doing’ gap, whilst also aiming to ‘unite’ staff from varying levels of experience and training, we set about getting our ‘boots on’.
We knew our conversations needed to cover the following:
What will the environment provide?
How will the children demonstrate the ‘characteristics of effective teaching and learning’? (DfE,2024)
What is the adult’s role in facilitating learning through play?
Below you will find a constructive, step-by-step process that the early years team (support staff and teachers) undertook to co-create the shared principles.
Step 1: Drawing upon existing models of success
Ask: Picture an EYFS setting with effective play based learning. What does it look like in action?
Responses were framed across three fundamental aspects of provision. Key sentence stems and words were provided to prompt discussion.
What will the environment need to have? [The environment will have open-ended resources that are accessible to the children.]
What will the children be doing? [The children will be collaborating to solve problems.]
What will the adults be doing? [The adults will be interacting with children at their level.]
Staff wrote down ideas on post-it notes, took turns discussing and placed them within each category.
It is worth noting that we recognise the contextual differences between settings but we think that this discussion tool can be adapted in various ways for fit and feasibility.
Step 2 : Longlist becomes shortlist
In trios, staff had to arrive at a consensus on the principles they felt were fundamental – what stays and what goes?
However, this shortlist was not fixed. Collectively, staff engaged with the evidence base through professional learning, building knowledge and skills. Along the way, they were invited to adapt existing principles or add new ones. This shared ownership meant staff, ready with their ‘boots on’, felt motivated to bring these principles to life, come rain or shine.
In the second blog we will consider the next steps in the suite of professional development on play-based learning. We will explore how the agreed principles provide the foundations for knowledge building of ‘continuous’ and ‘enhanced’ provision*.
* Many schools describe play-based learning as ‘continuous provision’ or ‘free-flow play’ for children in the Reception Year and, occasionally, in Year 1. It includes imaginative play and can be guided by an adult or led by the child. (Strong foundations in the first years of school, 2024)
