In my first Early Years job as a teaching assistant, I worked alongside a very inspiring teacher, and one of the many lessons she taught me was about how our attitude influences children. In Early Years education, one of the fundamental principles is that children should be provided with as many opportunities to learn outdoors as they have indoors. So, in England, this means that Early Years settings should have a free flow environment where children are able to access the outdoor learning environment at any time, whatever the weather.
As I worked alongside this inspiring teacher, I saw the true outworking of this principle - we really did go outside whatever the weather - we never said, 'Oh it's too cold / too wet / too muddy / too windy' to the children. The teacher set the tone for our team, and that tone was very much one where we embraced the importance of outdoor learning, and did not see any time of weather as negative or detrimental to the children.
Ever since seeing how important and invaluable it is to let children learn and explore outdoors, I have aimed to uphold the same positive attitude that my teacher held, and to not see wet and windy weather as a reason to stay indoors. So, when John looked at the weather forecast for the week, and it looked like we could expect a whole lot of grey days, with no hope of sun in sight, I resolved to still get outside for a walk each day, and find beauty in the dull days.
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