Planning With and for Children in the UK

The distinction between planning with children and planning for children represents a fundamental shift in early years pedagogy.

Planning for children involves adults pre-determining themes and activities before children arrive. Planning with children positions children as active contributors whose observations and interests directly inform what happens next.

The difference produces measurable outcomes in agency, engagement, and learning quality.

Why "With, Not For" Matters

Agency and Equity

When children participate in planning decisions, they develop agency and understand that their choices influence outcomes.

Tools like Talking Tubs™ create equitable entry points. A child who struggles with verbal expression can point to objects, arrange items, or communicate through gestures. When documented in Floorbooks®, all children see their thinking valued and visible.

Impact on Outcomes

Settings using collaborative planning report:

• Sustained engagement
• Depth of understanding
• Collaborative skills
• Quality documentation

These outcomes align with UK framework priorities: children as active learners, responsive teaching, and evidence of progression.

What a Floorbook® Make Visible

Winter offers rich inquiry opportunities from ice formation, changing light, and wind patterns. A Floorbook® can be used to capture these learning journeys collaboratively over time.

Key Functions

The Floorbook® records children's thinking through photographs, drawings, transcribed conversations, and emergent writing. This multimodal approach is particularly important in early years where literacy is developing and children represent understanding in many different ways.

When children revisit the Floorbook throughout an inquiry, they see how their thinking has developed. Initial predictions can be compared with later findings. Questions that sparked investigation can be examined alongside discoveries made through exploration.

The Floorbook becomes a common text that the group returns to. Children remind each other of previous experiments, reference earlier drawings, and build on collective knowledge rather than starting fresh each day.

For practitioners and external reviewers, Floorbooks® demonstrate depth of engagement, curriculum coverage, and genuine progression, not by just showing what children did, but by demonstrating how their thinking evolved through sustained inquiry.

Example: Rebekah Garwood, documented a winter inquiry when children returned from break noticing wind and how it whistled through doors, talking about being "blowed into school," and observing fallen branches. Garwood created a Talking Tub based on air and explored it with children through 3D mind mapping. The Floorbook® documented their wondering, hypothesising, experimenting, and creating. The inquiry evolved from wind to flight, with children designing and building kites. Curriculum outcomes were highlighted in the Floorbook as the project progressed, showing how literacy and mathematical thinking emerged because the work was driven by children's authentic interests.

From Talking Tubs™ to PLODS™

Talking Tubs™ and PLODS™ work as complementary planning tools.

A Talking Tub is a collection of real objects and images that provoke thinking and conversation. Unlike abstract discussion, these tactile and visual prompts support all children to participate, regardless of language proficiency or verbal confidence. For a winter inquiry, it might include a frozen leaf, frost photograph, wool mitten, ice cubes, reflective fabric, and torch. Each object connects to possible lines of investigation around cold, insulation, light, or change.

During a Talking Tub session, children explore objects, make connections, and articulate their understanding. The practitioner facilitates through open questions, not directing toward predetermined answers.

This process reveals prior knowledge (what children understand about ice and temperature), surfaces interests (which aspects generate engagement), and identifies who needs additional support. Once children's ideas are clear, they translate into PLODS™.

A PLOD consists of:

1. What will be offered (the experience or resource)
2. Why it matters (the learning focus)

Examples:

• "We will test ice in sunlight and shade to explore how location affects melting"
• "We will examine reflective materials to understand how light behaves on different surfaces"
• "We will investigate insulating materials to discover what keeps ice frozen longer"

These are written with children when appropriate, documented in the Floorbook®, and remain visible as inquiry progresses. They provide structure without rigidity and when interests shift based on discoveries, new PLODS™ emerge.

Aligning with UK Frameworks

Both EYFS and Curriculum for Excellence emphasise responsive, child-centred pedagogy. Planning with children through Floorbooks® naturally addresses these requirements.

When winter inquiries are documented in Floorbooks®, curriculum coverage emerges across Communication and Language, Physical Development, Personal and Social Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts.

Importantly, these areas aren't addressed through separate activities, they emerge naturally from sustained inquiry.

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence emphasises four capacities:

• successful learners
• confident individuals
• responsible citizens
• effective contributors

When children plan investigations, test hypotheses, and revise their thinking based on evidence, they develop all four simultaneously.

Common Pitfalls

Pre-determined coverage: The impulse to "cover" curriculum areas by certain dates conflicts with responsive planning. Trust that sustained inquiry touches multiple areas more comprehensively than scattered topics.

Adult-dominated documentation: If Floorbooks® consist primarily of practitioner handwriting, they're not truly collaborative. Children need to see their own marks and contributions prominently.

Activities rather than inquiry: Offering activities about interests (ice cube paintings) isn’t the same as supporting genuine investigation. The first predetermines outcomes while the second allows children to construct understanding.

Product over process: Documentation should capture attempts, conversations, and changing thinking — not just finished crafts. Inspection increasingly values evidence of thinking rather than evidence of doing.

Planning with children requires a shift in how practitioners understand their role: from deliverer of curriculum to facilitator of inquiry. It requires tools and processes that make children's thinking visible and actionable.

The UK edition of Planning With and for Children provides a comprehensive framework for this approach. It includes:

• The pedagogical foundations of planning with children
• Detailed guidance on using a Floorbook® as a documentation and planning tool
• Practical methods for gathering children's input through Talking Tubs™
  
• Structures for creating responsive PLODS™
  
• Real examples from UK settings showing inquiries, outdoor investigations, and indoor provocations
  
• Clear links to EYFS and Curriculum for Excellence requirements

For settings committed to making children's voices central to planning, these tools and practices offer a practical pathway forward.

Want to bring this approach across your whole team?
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