It was a Friday morning and Alfie had made an important discovery in our early years foundations stage (EYFS) outdoor play area: a fox had visited in the night, chewing through some of our play bricks.

As the first few pupils on the scene began to discuss what had happened, more children wandered over. Eventually 10 of them were standing around the play bricks. There was much chatter as the children began to ask questions.

It was the perfect snap opportunity for a writing task.

“Well, I hope Mr Fox isn’t going to come back,” I said, loudly. “How about we write him a message?”

Suddenly, there was a buzz of excitement in the garden with children scrabbling to lay their hands on pens, paper, clipboards, whiteboards, anything they could find to write with.

Together, we decided on the first message: “Mr Fox, keep away from the bricks.”

My enthusiastic writers then ran around the garden for the next half an hour writing and rewriting more signs, pegging them to the garden fence. Children were moving around to find their own writing spaces. Some were leaning upright on the fence with their clipboards - others were lying on their tummies on the grass. One or two were kneeling at a nearby cable drum. They were all completely absorbed in independent writing, producing their own version of this important message.

It began to rain lightly and the signs became a bit soggy, but this didn’t matter to the children. It was their writing, their voice, their proud achievement, no matter whether they were the most confident writers or the more emergent mark-makers.

Would this practice be acceptable in the wake of the Ofsted Bold Beginnings report? It advocates strongly that children should sit at a table with exercise books and that the adult should be focused on correct posture.

Missing ingredients

If this means practice like the above is to be discouraged, it would be fundamentally wrong. On this issue - as with many others - the report misses a key EYFS ingredient: the enjoyment, excitement and motivation to learn. And in this case, to write.

It also seems to misunderstand physical development. In EYFS, it is vitally important that planned activities are developmentally appropriate and matched to a child’s physical ability. Frankly, when writing, some children would be better practising under the table.

I put a lot of emphasis on teaching physical skills in my EYFS setting. It requires me to have a deep understanding of the range of physical development that contributes to effective control in writing: core strength, bi-lateral co-ordination, ability to cross the mid-line.

Some children still need to develop their upper body strength and gross motor skills to be fully ready for writing. They can’t do that just being sat at a table. They need other exercises.

At St Thomas More’s we develop these skills daily from September and incorporate the children’s physical needs with the teaching of early writing. For example, children may engage in “tummy time” as they create letter patterns on a large roll of paper. Lying on the floor supports the core and allows the shoulder and upper arm to be isolated.

Similarly, lying under the table to write is a fun way to provide for a child at a shoulder pivot level, enabling them to stretch their arm straight and use the appropriate muscles.

The team carefully observe each child’s physical movement and make note of the grip and physical needs. We provide appropriate physical activities to support the children through the year.

There are many who need more provision with gross motor skills at the beginning of the year. Their progress is noticeable as they move on to work more on developing fine motor skills and hand strength.

Research tells us that children are able to retain the shapes of the letters and motor patterns more effectively when they do so with “sensory feedback”, which encourages the brain to process and to remember (Learning Through Movement in the Early Years by Sharon Tredgett, Critical Publishing, 2015).

We plan for writing with this in mind, using fingertips in the sand, glitter or shaving foam. This is provided both through the environment and through planned focused activities during letters and sounds.

Away from the physical, isolating writing to an exercise where you are simply sat at a table with a teacher making you sit properly is to unnecessarily limit children’s enthusiasm and flexibility.

Not to mention the fact that, as adults, we write in multiple different scenarios, postures and places - including regularly being stood at the board in the classroom.

I believe in a rich learning environment, which encourages children to apply their writing skills in a range of contexts.

They write indoors and outdoors using a variety of different surfaces and materials: clipboards, notepads, easels, chalkboards, on tables and under tables. I feel that to limit writing is to take the colour and fun out of it.

One of the teaching tools that I find works successfully to allow for this is an objective led planning (OLP) approach. It is a flexible method of teaching that allows practitioners to carry the next steps in learning into the children’s play. The adult joins the child in the learning environment and then seeks to teach a particular skill within that area. For example, if a child is playing on the bikes and the skill focus is counting, I might count how many wheels on the bikes or challenge them to count a certain number of laps.

Currently, my Reception team are working very effectively with OLP. It offers great flexibility in supporting children within their area of interest in the environment at their level. I find that once the adult has moved away, the children are more likely to continue with practising their writing within continuous provision.

For fox’s sake

We have noticed that the children begin to initiate writing more, too, because they have seen some ideas and examples modelled. They connect examples of writing and print with their play experiences. This offers something different to working at a table. They also benefit from working on quite a high adult -child ratio, in short bursts. Through the approach we are provided with more significant child-initiated writing evidence needed to assess the children’s skills and make accurate judgements for the EYFSP.

Providing balance is key. I do use some adult-led teaching opportunities. Group teaching can sometimes be at tables in a group, where it is the most appropriate way to help the children to learn. We use careful observation to know which aspect of writing needs further focus and the best teaching tool to provide for that.

But encouraging a wider range of writing offers children opportunities to process their thinking and to grasp an understanding of the concept of print in meaningful contexts.

As for “Mr Fox”...well, for a while, we saw no signs of his return. The children were quite satisfied that their messages had been effective.

However, not long afterwards, a very small fox cub was spotted nearby - which led us to question whether Mr Fox had, in fact, been a Mrs Fox. Cue more questions from the children...and out came the pens again.

Helen Pinnington is early years foundation lead at St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School in Bedhampton, Hampshire

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