ABSTRACT

Meeting the diverse needs of children is an underpinning principle of both the Foundation Stage and the Early Years Foundation Stage, and of all good early years practice. Ensuring that all children-whatever their background, their experience, their gender, their culture, their religion, their ability-are offered equality of access and opportunity to the curriculum and to your time is something most practitioners strive to achieve. It may seem impossible to imagine how you can do this when faced with a new group of perhaps twenty-eight young children, but if you apply the principles of good early years practice by starting with a knowledge of the children in your group (who they are, where they come from, what languages they speak, what experiences they may have had) and keep in mind each individual when planning, you will find that it is possible.