Written by Georgia (Miss Lucas), EYFS teacher based in Hampshire.
About Me:
Hi, I’m Miss Lucas. I’m 25 years old and I’m currently in my fifth year of teaching. I’ve recently moved schools to work at a brand new school, where I’m the founding teacher of our first cohort, my little hedgehogs! 🦔
I’m incredibly lucky to be able to have so much freedom with the creativity of my classroom space and our bespoke curriculum. My new school has also been such an incredible opportunity for my career as I’ve been able to take on new roles: Reading Lead, DDSL and mentoring, which are really exciting progression steps for me!
I’ve always loved Early Years and working with younger children. When I was at primary school, I’d always volunteer to help with the reception class. I started my teaching career at my ECT school, which was single form, where I taught in reception.
I created a fun and exciting curriculum for my classes to access, and also implemented additional elements such as my weekly mountain challenges to encourage children to access all areas within the classroom and support their consolidation of prior learning.
I’m a big advocate for play-based learning and creating hands-on experiences for the children, which I’ve been showcasing across my social platforms since becoming a qualified teacher in 2021. My favourite thing about teaching Early Years is the magic you can make – we are in full control of making the magic for the children and having fun everyday! It’s incredible to see the progression the children make across the year, the memories we share and all the hilarious and silly things they say in between!
My favourite thing about teaching Early Years is the magic you can make – we are in full control of making the magic for the children and having fun everyday!
My AI Journey
I’ll be completely honest, I was initially very reluctant to get onboard with AI – which as a younger teacher, I’ve been laughed at many times for! I think for me, I just couldn’t see the need for it. Which seems silly now having a better understanding of how much time you can save and also how you can further develop so many ideas using it!
I think I found it difficult to get on board with to begin with as a lot of platforms and schemes don’t have a full understanding of Early Years – and we can sometimes be seen an afterthought, or forgotten completely!
When my uni student first introduced me to AI, I wasn’t keen at all as I thought it would take away all my creativity. For example, I found that a lot of the provision and tuff tray ideas were very ‘samesy’ and repetitive. I also thought that a lot of the ideas being suggested weren’t modern or current – or simply taken from a quick Google search.
However, since discovering Teachmate, I can honestly say I’ve had nothing but a positive experience.
How I use Teachmate as an EYFS Teacher
A common myth about AI in EYFS is that it doesn’t apply, or isn’t reliable and relevant to us. Whereas, since using Teachmate, it is clear they have put significant time and effort into developing tools specifically for Early Years.
I started using Teachmate when I recently moved to a new school, which increased my workload but also meant my academy trusted me to explore and trial new technology. I was curious to try Teachmate as it has been designed by teachers and specifically for education usage, which meant I could trust the content and feel confident that the platform has a deeper understanding of education than other platforms.
Teachmate offers a large range of tools to support all areas of education, with brilliant SEND tools as well as tools to lighten admin tasks, such as writing letters. The main perk for me was that the platform really knew the curriculum for Early Years and understood that the curriculum is play based and should be creative. The tools have been well thought out and have a good level of detail within responses and planning.
The main perk for me was that the platform really knew the curriculum for Early Years and understood that the curriculum is play based and should be creative. The tools have been well thought out and have a good level of detail within responses and planning.
The EYFS Planner
One of the tools I use the most is the EYFS Planner. This has given me fresh, engaging ideas for both adult-led and continuous provision activities, while clearly outlining assessment opportunities alongside the intent and implementation of each activity.
I enter my topic, curriculum and the number of weeks in the unit. Teachmate also offers book lists, weekly overviews & home learning suggestions, making it a great tool for supporting the development of long term plans and medium term topic maps. The plans are generated in minutes and are detailed across each area of learning within the Early Years Framework. They provide key vocab, learning goals, adult-led tasks and differentiation ideas.
The Continuous Provision Ideas Tool
Alongside the EYFS planner, I also use the Continuous Provision Ideas tool. It’s super quick and easy to use – you simply add your year group, your chosen topic and how many activities you would like. The generator also offers both indoor and outdoor provision ideas. In less than a minute, you have a wide range of new ideas, making it much easier and lower maintenance to plan and adapt provision.
The provision planner is a great way to come up with new ideas and try different opportunities of play. It comes with adult-led activities, extensions to play, new opportunities and vocabulary. There are also suggestions for assessment points, which are brilliant to share with people new to the team!
Early Years Action Planner
Finally another great tool and a huge timer saver is the EYFS Action Plan. All you need to enter is your curriculum and the main goal for the action plan, teachmate then does all the work for you and gives suggestions week by week on what to achieve and implement. There’s an estimated timeline, outcomes and ways to support monitoring.
My Advice
My advice to other early years teachers is to have fun, be creative and remember we don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be good teachers. Each day in Early Years is so different, in a good way!
The children are so full of light and imagination – they come out with the funniest things. I try to spend as much time in provision fully engaging within their play as they truly get so much out of this time. The magic from working with my little hedgehogs is one of my favourite parts of my job. I adore being a teacher and having hands on, creative and fun experiences with my class and watching them progress across the year.
Whilst I love being creative and making my own resources, I do also think it’s really helpful for teachers to be able to access tools like Teachmate that offer support with planning and reducing workload to promote a positive and healthy work life balance. You don’t need to do everything from scratch and asking for or using helpful tools is a great way to prioritise jobs and balance responsibilities.
Don’t forget, you can’t pour from an empty cup!
By Georgia Lucas
@Misslucas.eyfs on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Youtube.
