PF203 Variety of equipment

Licensing criterion and guidance for PF203 Variety of equipment.

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Criterion PF203

A variety of equipment and materials is provided to ensure children have access to appropriate learning, challenges, experiences, and opportunities that support their developmental stages, abilities, and current and emerging interests.

Guidance

How to show you are complying

Educators must provide a variety of equipment and materials that provide children with appropriate challenges, opportunities and experiences. They need to support different developmental stages, abilities, and current and emerging interests.

Make sure the equipment and materials suit the range of ages, abilities, and interests of the children attending. Children need to be able to access materials that match their interest and help them build their skills and abilities.

Consider open-ended resources and materials that can be used in different ways and are easy to move. When items have a range of uses, children have more choice and control over how they use them which supports learning experiences.

Observe children’s interest to make sure your equipment remains relevant to children’s interest.

When assessing whether you comply with PF203

Questions we are likely to ask

  • How do you make sure that you have a variety of equipment appropriate to the learning challenges, experiences and interests of all children?

We are likely to look at, measure or count

  • The variety of outdoor and indoor furniture, equipment and materials available to children.

  • How the furniture, materials and equipment support children’s abilities, learning experiences, and their current and emerging interests.

The tools below are here to support you, but you do not have to use them. You can use other tools or methods that work better for your service.

The educator can reflect how the equipment and materials offered in the home will:

  • provide for groups and individual play

  • provide for children’s current and emerging interests

  • provide with opportunities for choice, planning and problem solving

  • be relevant and challenging for the range of ages and abilities of children attending

  • reflect different attitudes and feelings.

Examples of opened-ended resources include:

  • blocks or loose parts

  • cardboard boxes

  • art supplies

  • sand and water.

Children learn by interacting with people, places and things. The equipment and materials provided to children impacts on their learning, and how they view themselves and others as capable and competent learners.