Early Years Practitioner Guidance

Decisions about teaching and learning approaches will be determined by your centre and will be influenced by policy and leadership. However, you will be able to implement the Cambridge Early Years Programme most smoothly if you ensure coherence with the teaching and learning approaches that best support the curriculum. 

The design of the Cambridge Early Years Curriculum supports the following overlapping teaching and learning approaches:

• active learning, which puts the child at the centre of their learning so they are engaged in their learning rather than passively listening and receiving information
• a play-based approach, which involves children learning through playful activities that are either child-initiated or adult-led 
• a focus on developing speaking and listening skills, which enable children to communicate, make sense of the world and develop through social interactions
• a multilingual approach, which supports the learning of bilingual and multilingual children, and celebrates home languages
• a focus on developing self-regulation, which develops children’s awareness and control of their own thinking, learning and emotions

Digital approaches in teaching and learning

Any digital approach or tool should focus on teaching and learning and support the outcomes of the Cambridge Early Years Curriculum learning statements. Digital tools that provide added value, allowing practitioners and children to work in new, innovative, and clear added-value ways, are to be sought after, whilst developing the digital literacy and technological competency attributes of the child. Anything that involves additional pressure, logins or difficulty for practitioners will involve training, time and a distraction away from the core aims of the programme.

Practitioners need to be empowered to consider the value of technology and reflect on what a child’s experience with technology should be during the early years. As a practitioner, it is encouraged that you should use the opportunity to rethink how digital technology could be integrated into play, problem solving, creativity and drama. This could be through having examples of devices that children can use in creative ways, as part of role play or by them recording their own experiences.

When considering using digital tools and software to support teaching and learning, you should consider the following:

• Where can value be added in supporting and enhancing the curriculum areas?  
• Does the time it takes to use the digital tool make sufficient difference?
• Are there clearly identifiable benefits to the children using the technology?

The most successful teaching and learning takes place where technology is used as a tool to support and enhance play and learning opportunities, it should never replace interaction with peers and adults.