Creating a Child-Led, Play-Based Curriculum

Mel Shepherd • March 4, 2025

Embedding your ethos into your curriculum.

When we talk about curriculum in Early Years, it’s easy to get caught up in documents, frameworks and checklists. But at its core, curriculum is simply the journey a child takes while they’re in your setting. It’s about understanding where they are when they arrive and supporting them in reaching their full potential by the time they leave. How we guide them on that journey is what makes up the curriculum - and in an Early Years setting, there’s no better way to do that than through play!

Leadership in Building a Child-Led Curriculum


Strong leadership is essential in shaping a meaningful curriculum. It starts with setting a clear vision of what you want children to achieve by the time they leave your setting. This could include fostering independence, nurturing creativity, developing social skills or building resilience.


Leaders should define their ethos and pedagogy, ensuring that these principles are embedded in everyday practice.


A well-articulated ethos might include:


  • A commitment to play-based learning as the primary tool for learning.
  • Creating engaging environments that inspire curiosity and exploration.
  • Allowing space for fun and joy as an integral part of the learning journey.
  • Building strong relationships with children and their families to create a sense of belonging.
  • Encouraging problem-solving, critical thinking and independence through open-ended activities.



Leaders must also ensure staff feel confident in delivering this vision. Providing training, reflective practice opportunities and fostering a culture of collaboration can help embed a truly child-led curriculum.

Curriculum That Works for Your Setting


One of the biggest misconceptions is that curriculum is just about following Development Matters or Birth to 5 Matters. While these frameworks provide useful guidance, they are not your curriculum – they are tools that can help shape it. Your curriculum should be unique to your setting, your children and your community. What works for one nursery won’t necessarily work for another, and that’s okay! The key is to build a curriculum that reflects the children in your care, their interests, their needs, and the values of your setting.


Creating a Child-Led, Play-Based Curriculum


So, how do we build a curriculum that is truly child-led and rooted in play? Here are some practical steps:


1. Start with the Children

Observe, listen and engage. What are the children interested in? What sparks their curiosity? A child-led curriculum means following their lead, not prescribing what they should learn. Use their interests as the foundation for planning activities and experiences.


2. Create an Enabling Environment

A well-planned environment invites exploration, problem-solving and creativity. Open-ended resources like loose parts, natural materials and role-play areas give children the freedom to direct their own learning through play.


3. Be Flexible

Play-based learning isn’t about rigid plans. If the children suddenly develop a fascination with dinosaurs, space or cooking, go with it! Your curriculum should evolve with them, allowing for deep engagement in meaningful experiences.


4. Build Strong Relationships

A child-led curriculum relies on responsive adults. Staff should be attuned to children’s needs, scaffolding their learning without taking over. Conversations, interactions and well-timed questions help extend play and encourage deeper thinking.


5. Weave in Key Learning Areas Naturally

You can still ensure children develop key skills within a play-based approach. Maths, literacy, problem-solving and social skills all emerge naturally through high-quality play experiences. For example, a child building a tower is exploring balance, measurement and spatial awareness without needing a formal ‘maths activity’.



6. Reflect and Adapt

Leaders should create a culture of continuous reflection. Regularly evaluate what’s working and what needs tweaking. Are children engaged? Are they progressing? Are staff confident in facilitating child-led play? Continual reflection ensures the curriculum remains meaningful and effective.

A child-led, play-based curriculum isn’t about ticking boxes – it’s about creating a rich, engaging learning journey for children. With strong leadership, a clear vision, and an ethos rooted in play, fun, and relationships, you can build a curriculum that not only meets developmental goals but fosters a lifelong love of learning.


So, let’s embrace play, follow the children’s lead, and build a curriculum that truly works for them!

Born to Play, Built to Learn

By Mel Shepherd • January 30, 2025
O. Fred Donaldson, Ph.D said that "Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn." This summarises the basis of play based learning and explains the key to why play is so integral to child centred learning within our Early Years settings. This blog will explore why play based learning is vital and some of the ways it benefits children in their holistic development. 

Deck the Halls with Christmas Crafts – or not!?

By Mel Shepherd • December 3, 2024
It’s that time of year again, where the debate starts to rage about what Christmas activities we should be doing with our Early Years children. Do we send home matching ‘handprint’ Christmas cards to each child? Or do we leave everything entirely up to the child and allow them to create something, if they wish, that is entirely child led. The controversy around this can seem somewhat irrational and, to be honest, hasn’t been helped in recent years but the use of the term ‘craptivities’ when it comes to these more uniform Christmas crafts. I really strongly believe that we should be able to debate and share our opinions in Early Years, without belittling what others do. Realistically, I think there’s a middle ground that we can meet in, which still involves the child and gives them to opportunity to be creative, whilst also sending something home at Christmas for parents. I think that provocations are the way to go in terms of Christmas Activities – setting up some resources, and potentially some examples, to provoke children’s interest and spark an idea. 

My Essential Early Years Book Shelf

By Mel Shepherd • November 21, 2024
I absolutely love children’s books – there are so many fantastic books out there and it can be hard to know where to start. I started this as a top ten, but it was too tricky to narrow it down, so here is my list of essential Early Years books to have in your setting. It certainly is not an exhaustive list, but it is one that is full of books to enjoy with children that hopefully you will love as much as they do!

What does 'Quality' Early Years provision look like?

By Mel Shepherd • November 21, 2024
So, you book me to come in and support you to improve the quality in your setting, but what does that look like? Does quality have to fit within a certain approach? Does it have to involve particular styles of resources? Do you need all your team to be trained to Level 6? The answer to all of these is ‘no’ but of course it’s more complicated than that, let’s try and unpack it. When we really break it down, at its core, quality Early Years provision is one that puts the child at the centre of everything it does and focusses on meeting each child’s individual needs. The Early Years landscape can be confusing and overwhelming right now with different approaches and schemes telling you they are the right way to ‘do’ Early Years. The reality is, you need to find what works for you and the children in your setting. There really is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to Early Years! When I look at quality in a setting, there are a few key things that I am looking for: Sequential Learning - does learning flow through the rooms to support children’s development and support with transitions Adult interactions - are adults at the child’s level, engaging with them and learning alongside them Why this? Why now? - can Early Years Educators talk about the ‘why’ for what they are doing and why it is relevant for that child/group of children at that moment in time? Curriculum and ethos - what do you want for children when they leave your setting and how are you supporting them to get to this point? Team wellbeing and support - are staff happy and well supported at work, do they want to be there and have the training they need to be able to Leadership - are leadership confident and clear about what they are wanting to achieve as a setting? Do they model this for the rest of the team? Do they have a good knowledge of what is going on within the setting? Team training - are the team well trained? Do they understand what is expected of them and have the tools to achieve this? Safeguarding - do the team have a good understanding of how to keep children safe? All of this can be achieved with a range of approaches, resources and schemes and, in the most part, is focussed around the team and leadership in the setting all being on the same page and having the skills and tools they need to achieve the best for the children. I am a big advocate for In the Moment Planning and open ended resources, but this might not work for your cohort or for your team to meet the needs of your setting. That’s something that you can decide as a team who knows your children, families and community and what they need. When I come in to look at quality in your settings, what is important is for me to get to know you, your setting and understand the ‘why’ behind everything you do. This way, I can help to support you to develop the quality in your setting, whilst still keeping what makes you, you! If you think I can help, feel free to get in touch.

Teaching or Childcare - and do we have to choose?

November 19, 2024
This debate is something which feels like it’s raging in the Early Years world at the moment and there are two big areas of focus: 1 - To raise the profile of Early Years and its amazing, wonderful practitioners 2 - To help people (especially the powers that be) to understand the importance of play and how children learn through play. There is a lot more around this area but these are two topics which I think the majority of the Early Years community would agree are important right now for so many reasons - policy making, the staffing crisis and outcomes for children to name a few. So what is it that we do? It’s a complicated question, because if you list out the daily job role of an Early Years Practitioner it is endless. But the overarching question is, are we teachers or are we childcarers, and does it matter what our title is at the end of the day? Let’s take a look at some of the opinions people have about Early Years and how they could impact the sector. “You just play all day” We’ve all had this said to us about our jobs, haven’t we? And it’s very tempting to argue back that we don’t just play all day - but actually at its core, isn’t that what we’re doing? Shouldn’t we be responding with “yes, and it’s great, let me tell you about all the things we learnt while we played today!”? If we argue against this idea of ‘playing all day’ then are we risking reducing people’s understanding of the importance of play in the Early Years even more? “We’re teachers, we spend all day teaching” This is absolutely true as well - teaching and play aren’t mutually exclusive! In fact, I would go as far to argue, in the Early Years, you can’t have one without the other. Early Years practitioners are 100% teachers, and I strongly believe that they should be valued just as highly (if not more so) than any teachers throughout any of the rest of the education system. If we don’t get it right in the Early Years, then it can have a massive impact on children’s future journey through the education system, and the same can certainly be said for when we do get it right But there’s more to it than the typical ‘teaching’ role (or how that is perceived), we have to be careful not to lose the ‘care’ aspect of Early Years as well.