Cultivating curiosity, playfulness and professional love

Are your early childhood environments thoughtfully considered?

Do you reflect on your environments in terms of interactions, experiences and spaces?

Do they promote;

Curiosity? Curiosity drives children's desire to explore, to ask questions and to play. Children learn most deeply when they are following their natural curiosity as it places them at the centre of their learning.

Playfulness? Play cannot be pinned down into a neat, measurable definition. Reflecting on Tina Bruce's “12 features of play approach”, does your environment support a clear play pedagogy?

Centred around love? – Reflecting on Dr Jools Page thinking on “Professional Love”, are loving relationships developed in settings between children and adults.

Recognising that carefully considered and designed play spaces encourage optimal learning and development, Karen has shared first-hand her experience of how she and her teams at Kirktonholme Centres weave their thinking about curiosity, playfulness, and professional love throughout both their indoor and outdoor environments. She has shared various images to enlighten you about the thinking behind the design and curriculum.