Enabling Environments and
Early Years RE
Penny Burnside
Education Officer, Diocese of Exeter

Making sense of school – how do we show children what really matters?

1 Care and welfare are given a high priority
2 A stimulating learning environment which offers a range of first hand, multi sensory experiences both indoors and outdoors
3 Staff undertaking observations
4 Positive adult-child interactions
5 Children involved in child initiated activities
6 Motivated staff engaged in direct teaching of well planned focused activities
7 Access to high quality resources which support the child’s learning and allow cross curricular opportunities to take place...
Observation of Teaching and Learning in the Early Years
Foundation Stage (EYFS)
GUIDANCE NOTES – Devon ldp

8 Floor play – young children need space not tables
9 Well planned and resourced Continuous Provision which reflects the six areas of learning and development
10 Children working independently on adult initiated/child continued activities
11 Flexible organisation across the day – young children need time to consolidate their learning and consideration given to unplanned learning opportunities
12 Happy smiling faces – children having fun!
Observation of Teaching and Learning in the Early Years
Foundation Stage (EYFS)
GUIDANCE NOTES – Devon ldp

Nobody talks about this at school – so I don’t talk about it (any more).
Not everything needs explaining

“ We often tell a Bible story but, rather than trusting God’s word to speak for itself in God’s own way, we rush to explain what it says to
us. We miss the chance to explore how it can make meaning for the child.”
R. Nye Children’s Spirituality:
What it is and Why it Matters p34

Real conversations often happen in the spaces.
“ Conversations in the car, the bath, at bedtime, or just when you are least prepared for them are often much more important ....”
R. Nye Children’s Spirituality: What it is and Why it Matters p28

It’s not about making things easier.

Language
Young children can cope with sophisticated language.
“One implication... for teaching is that the language used by adults must be sufficiently elaborate to support and ‘flesh out’ advances in children’s thinking.”
Athey, C Extending Thought in Young Children p167

Language
“People are unlikely to learn words that express concepts that they do not have;
“Nobody would learn the word ‘cat’ unless he knows what a cat is.”
Fodor (1980) in Athey, C Extending Thought in Young Children p164

Metaphor
“...it is vital that pupils are helped to interpret symbolic language which is so necessary for the communication of deep insight.”
Ashton, E Religious Education in the Early Years p27

Metaphor
“...the person who undertakes the interpretation of metaphors becomes involved in the intriguing task of reflecting further by drawing upon personal experience. There is mystery surrounding metaphors which is motivating in itself... and the possibility of uncovering many meanings and dealing with them can become an exciting adventure.”
Ashton, E Religious Education in the Early Years p29

Metaphor
“By using metaphor, even very small children can cope with complex notions and begin to give expression to multi-faceted insights which defy the literal use of language.”
Ashton, E Religious Education in the Early Years p30

Metaphor
“Metaphor offers an exciting medium through which... reflective thought can be deepened by the consideration of religious insights”
Ashton, E Religious Education in the Early Years p44

Metaphor
Adults can get in the way of children’s thinking.
“Children learn from adults to think in crude, anthropomorphic terms”
Petrovich (1989)) in Ashton, E Religious Education in the Early Years p47-48

We frequently expect children to think about our ideas.
How often do we go away and think about their ideas?
Let’s do this more!

A Reggio Emilia approach
The “pedagogy of listening”
“...if we believe that children possess their own theories, interpretations and questions and that they are protagonists in the knowledge-building processes, then the most important verb in educational practice is no longer to talk, to explain, or to transmit, but to listen....”
( Carlina Rinaldi, 1999)

A Reggio Emilia approach
“Listening means being open to others and what they have to say, listening to the hundred and more languages, with all our senses.
Listening means being open to differences and recognising the value of different points of view and the interpretation of others.”
( Carlina Rinaldi, 1999)

A Reggio Emilia approach
Children as “co-constructors”
“the view of children as co-constructors...
understands that what children learn, all their knowledge, emerges in the process of self and social construction since children do not passively endure their experiences but become active agents in their socialisation, co-constructed with their peers... “

A Reggio Emilia approach
“It is a view of children as meaning-makers.
But always in relationship with others, seeking an answer, rather than the answer.”
(Dahlberg 1999)

To what extent do current units of work start from children’s own ideas?

An experiment !

Poster of the Last Supper
Artist Si Smith, for Blackburn Diocese http://www.bdeducation.org.uk/shop/communion-confirmation/last-supper-posterbdbe001ls.html

Creating space for wondering
Godly Play

A few key features
Whole class (circle)
The story – told from memory, no book
Eye contact – or not
Small world people and props
Use of hand gestures
“Wondering” questions
Also: the room the welcome the feast
Opportunities for children to respond in their own way
(“work”) www.godlyplay.org.uk

A discovery method of sharing, teaching and learning
A method that values process, openness and discovery
A method that is focused on the needs of the whole person: body, mind and spirit
A multi-sensory approach that combines and integrates language (the verbal system) and play (the non-verbal system)
Using symbols and objects as well as words
An integrated experience by which one’s own unique spirituality can grow

Montessori principles
Godly Play uses Montessori principles in that objects used in the Godly Play room are made from natural materials.
Quality of materials and construction are also important.
The objects are not just visual aids for a story but are there to be played with and explored.
Objects are then placed upon appropriate coloured felt underlays to help keep the focus.
Many of the objects are either kept in baskets, on trays or boxes.
It will depend upon the genre of the story.

Listening to children’s thinking and using their ideas to shape future teaching
Reggio Emilia

Experiencing community, celebration, acceptance, forgiveness
Shared experiences, the significance of meals

Continuous provision – an idea
Shared meals
The practice of hospitality
The enjoyment of God’s creation
The use of our gifts

“Food connects” (Tim Chester)
Meals as enacted grace - Luke 5
Meals as enacted community – Luke 7
Meals as enacted hope – Luke 9
Meals as enacted mission – Luke 14
Meals as enacted salvation – Luke 22
Meals as enacted promise – Luke 24
A Meal with Jesus: Tim Chester 2011 (IVP )

“Meals also have the power to shape and reshape community.
A person to whom we may have related in one role becomes a person to whom we relate as a friend. Serving another changes the dynamics of a relationship.
The leader who serves at table is no longer aloof.”
Chester T, A Meal with Jesus p52

“Meals indicate social status and they thereby allow us to transform social status.”
“The marginalized cease to be marginal when they’re included around a meal table.
The lonely cease to be lonely.
The alien ceases to be alien.
Strangers become friends.”
Chester T, A Meal with Jesus p52