The Foundation Phase

Much like the Montessori approach to education, the Foundation Phase encourages children to learn through play. Their curriculum's are very similar as the Welsh Government adopted some of Montessori's ideas. The Foundation Phase curriculum consists of;

• Personal and Social development; well-being and cultural diversity.
• Language, Literacy and Communication skills.
• Mathematical Development
• Welsh Language Development
• Knowledge and Understanding of the world
• Physical Development
• Creative Development (wales.gov.uk,2012)

The Foundation Phase curriculum is very much centred around play. This curriculum shows that children learn best through experiences. From my experience of working in a Foundation Phase setting, I see play as a tool for learning continuously. The benefits of the Foundation Phase in my opinion are that children are enjoying learning and sometimes not even realising that they are learning. Of course I also believe there are disadvantages to this curriculum as many children will believe they are just playing and not take interest in what they are supposed be learning.

Children Investigating and learning through experience
Image reference:http://www.walesonline.co.uk, 2011

The role of the teacher in the Foundation Phase is to ensure that all children's opinions are valued in the classroom. They also act as observers and have to document the progress of each child. They also ensure that the children are encouraged to give their opinions and to explain their thoughts.

According to the Welsh Government (2012), the curriculum focuses on experiential learning, active involvement and developing children's;

• Skills and understanding 
• Personal, Social, Emotional, Physical and intellectual well-being so as to develop the whole child.
• Positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue.
• Self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form relationships.

From working at a school that teaches the Foundation Phase it is clear to see how learning is influenced by play and how the students are actively involved in their own personal education. For example, I was in placement and the children were being taught a poem about a policeman ready for a visit from a policeman in a couple of days. They learnt the poem through acting out what the poem described and were very involved. They were asked as a class for suggestions on how they believed the best way to learn the poem would be. There were many suggestions such as singing it, having a certain amount of children dress as policemen and many more. Previous to the Foundation Phase, I doubt this would have happened. The children would have been told the poem repeatedly and would not have been asked for their suggestions on how they would like to learn the poem. 

I believe this gives the children an impact on their own learning. Obviously these activities are overseen by the practitioner/teacher. I believe this makes the learning experience more enjoyable for the students and that it could encourage them to do well at school and possibly aim to go on to further education in the future. 


The disadvantages to the Foundation Phase in my opinion are similar to the ones of Montessori education. If the child has no interest in taking part it could affect their education as a whole, and I believe although the teacher/practitioner ensures every child develops at a good pace, that if a child does not enjoy the hands-on approach to learning and would rather be doing things through workbooks and learning through reading and writing more than physically learning it will be less beneficial for them.