Planning overview


Child thinking


Welcome to the guidance on planning. 

For an effective play-based approach, you should support your children’s learning with a range of well planned opportunities for child-initiated and guided play, and some more focused adult-led activities. 

Thoughtful planning before teaching and learning will also enable you to focus more on in-the-moment decisions about how to develop the learning of individual children.



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This section provides general guidance on effective planning, and step-by-step support for your own planning. It it includes these sections: