Could your EYFS environment be doing more of the teaching?

What does it mean for an EYFS environment to act as a ‘third teacher’?

In an EYFS setting, the environment is often described as the ‘third teacher’ because it plays an important role in how children learn and develop. Alongside learning from early years professionals and other children, the space around them can encourage curiosity, exploration and discovery.

The way a room is laid out, the resources provided and how welcoming each area feels can all influence how children engage with their learning and development. For example, having resources within a child’s reach allows them to choose items independently and explore activities without having to rely on a practitioner’s support.

This is where the idea of the EYFS environment to act as a ‘third teacher’ becomes particularly useful. The environment isn’t just a place where children turn up and spend their day, it can be intentionally designed to invite children to practise skills, make decisions, explore ideas and build on what they already know. A well-planned environment therefore becomes part of the teaching approach, working alongside a practitioner.

What can the EYFS environment teach?

Some of the most valuable learning experiences in the early years take place beyond structured, adult-led lessons, often emerging through everyday interactions, play and spontaneous opportunities for exploration.

Children also develop crucial skills and knowledge through problems they encounter, everyday decisions they make and the experiences they have when working independently.

A learning environment can create these opportunities, and by doing so, help children learn important skills such as:

• Independence - identifying what they need, making decisions and handling familiar tasks without always relying on an adult.
• Decision-making - choosing where to play, what to use and which resources will help them.
• Problem-solving - figuring out what to do when something doesn’t work, goes wrong, changes unexpectedly or requires a different approach.
• Perseverance - having another attempt, trying something differently and sticking at an idea even when it becomes difficult.
• Responsibility - learning to look after resources, take care of shared spaces and recognise that they have a part to play in their environment.
• Negotiation - working with other children to share resources, agree on ideas and resolve disagreements.
• Confidence - having the freedom to try something new on their own, make mistakes and realise they can work things out independently.
• Communication and language - having opportunities to talk, listen, explain ideas and learn new words through play and everyday interactions.

These skills are difficult to teach through a single adult-led activity, as they develop through repeated, first-hand experiences. For example, a practitioner can explain what perseverance is to a child, however, for it to be truly understood, the child needs opportunities to experience challenges, overcome difficulties and develop resilience through their own experiences. This could be achieved through returning to a challenging puzzle, trying different approaches and gradually building the determination to complete it independently.

Creating opportunities for independent learning

For children to benefit from their environment, they need to be able to effectively access and use it. The way in which resources are stored, displayed and organised can greatly influence how independently children can explore and interact with their surroundings.

When children can reach resources, follow simple routines and make decisions, they don’t need to rely on a practitioner to manage and control every part of their play.

The environment can also support independence through everyday routines. Practical arrangements such as having a place to put coats, clear spaces for personal belongings and easy-to-reach break time equipment can allow children to take responsibility for their familiar tasks.

Instead of relying on a practitioner to provide every resource or instruction, they can begin handling familiar routines and making decisions independently.

With that being said, it’s important that independence is supported appropriately. Practitioners must consider each child’s individual abilities, to ensure resources can be used safely, and provide help when needed.

Designing provision that encourages curiosity and problem solving

Once resources have been made accessible for all children, practitioners should consider what each resource encourages children to explore. Open-ended materials are useful because they can be used in many ways. Blocks can turn into buildings or bridges, fabrics can be made into a den or part of a role play scenario and boxes, tubes or loose parts can be mixed and matched in many ways. As these resources don’t have one fixed outcome, they invite children to be creative.

A child attempting to build a bridge that keeps falling down gives them a real problem to solve. The child might change the size of the blocks, place extra support beneath it or ask another child for their opinion. With each attempt, they explore balance, adjust their design and reflect on what did and didn’t work. These types of activities also give practitioners the opportunity to observe a child’s thinking strategies.

Instead of simply observing that a child is playing with some blocks, practitioners can pay attention to how a child responds to challenges, whether they can adjust their plan, how well they communicate their ideas and when they ask for help. The aim of this isn’t necessarily to teach a child how to build a bridge with blocks, it’s to give them the space and opportunity to develop and apply their thinking and problem-solving abilities.

The practitioner and the environment working together

Referring to the environment as a ‘third teacher’ should never suggest that early years professionals are less important. Early years practitioners play an important role in understanding what children are learning, recognising when they need support and deciding when to build on their experience. This might mean demonstrating a skill or introducing new vocabulary. On other occasions, it could mean asking a thoughtful question or giving children the time and space to figure things out on their own.

For example, if children show interest in how things move, such as a toy car, a practitioner might provide a variety of objects to test on a ramp. They could encourage children to predict what might happen, compare their observations and talk about why some objects travel further than others.

A learning environment should also change as children’s interests and needs develop. Practitioners can draw on what they observe about the children to judge whether new resources, alternative activities, or adjustments to the space might better support learning.

For example, if children show an interest in building, practitioners can introduce a wider range of construction materials, add photos of buildings, and provide resources that help them explore balance and stability to extend their thinking.

This is a great example of how the environment provides the starting point while the practitioner helps the child learn more from it through observation and interaction.

This aligns closely with the approach outlined in Development Matters, which recognises the importance of well-planned learning environments alongside play, adult modelling, guided learning and direct teaching.

It’s important to understand how the environment and practitioner work together. All resources should have a purpose, practitioners should know what a child may gain from using them and the environment should be adjusted when observations suggest a different approach would work better.

Could your EYFS environment be doing more of the teaching?

Yes! A well-designed EYFS environment plays an important role in teaching by giving children opportunities to make their own choices, practise skills, solve problems, revisit learning and use their knowledge in different ways.

However, it’s not about filling every corner with resources or relying on the environment to do the teaching without practitioners’ support. It’s about the two working together to create learning and development opportunities for children.

If you’re unsure whether your EYFS environment is supporting children to learn independently, ask yourself:

• Can children access appropriate resources independently?
• Does the environment reflect children’s interests, experiences and needs?
• Do the resources encourage exploration rather than just one correct outcome?
• Do children have time to revisit and develop their ideas?
• Does the environment support communication, collaboration and independence?
• Do early years professionals know when to observe, when to intervene and when to extend learning?

Asking these questions can help you look beyond how your environment looks and consider what it actually allows children to do, explore and learn.