Early years: Thriving through movement

School readiness encompasses a broad range of developmental milestones that set the foundation for future learning, from language and communication to physical coordination and social interaction. 

Children who start school without these essential skills not only face immediate challenges in their first classrooms, but these early disadvantages can echo through the next 20 years of their lives – affecting their confidence, academic achievement, career opportunities and overall life outcomes.  

Early Moves programme

Dance company Rambert is working in partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to launch Early Moves this month, a bespoke programme for nursery settings that supports school readiness by embedding movement, dance and creative play into young children’s lives. 

It’s been developed in response to alarming research by GMCA identifying school readiness as an urgent issue, particularly in areas where socioeconomic inequalities contribute to significant health inequities across the 10 boroughs.

This month, 36 practitioners from 23 nurseries across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester will participate in a two-day intensive training programme where they will learn imaginative, movement-based workshops inspired by Rambert Grades’ Creative Dance for Early Years framework. For many, this will be their first encounter with Rambert’s work, and perhaps with contemporary dance. 

We’ve worked closely with Early Education Leads across all 10 boroughs to speak with nurseries and identify the settings and practitioners that would most benefit from this opportunity. The training will be practical, fun and empowering.  

A big ask

But it’s after the training that the real work will begin. Practitioners will deliver weekly movement workshops as part of the nursery routine for the children in their care.  

Recognising this is a big ask – especially for those hitherto unfamiliar with contemporary dance – Rambert will provide ongoing, tailored support throughout the year-long pilot programme. This will include co-facilitated sessions with Rambert’s Early Years North West dance specialist, Chloe Senior, as well as regular check-ins and online lunchtime drop-ins to ensure nursery practitioners feel confident and supported in delivering their sessions. 

Before this January launch, a ‘test and learn’ phase was delivered last year across 12 nurseries in Greater Manchester. It demonstrated the effectiveness of this initiative. We trained 12 practitioners to implement the Early Moves programme in their respective nurseries and then offered ongoing support over 12 months in a series of visits and group training sessions.

We also invited the practitioners to see Rambert’s Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at The Lowry in Salford. The practitioners identified how their sessions – centred on playing cards that suggest imaginative themes such swimming with whales, flying to the moon or travelling to the desert – helped enhance the coordination, communication skills and curiosity of the children – key building blocks for school readiness. 

Equipping practitioners with confidence

“The children are really engaging with it… the ones you don’t expect to have really engaged. We’ve got one child with English as an additional language who is not as verbal as some of the other children, but she’s starting to say words during the sessions. She’ll say ‘stop’ and ‘go’ during the warmup, which is great progress. There’s another child who doesn’t engage much in a lot of activities, but he is really engaging in everything and taking everything in.” Tori from Happy Kids in Altrincham  

We’re also interested in the practitioners viewing their roles in new ways. A new report, A Look into Early Years Staff Wellbeing (October 2024), highlights significant dissatisfaction among nursery practitioners, with factors such as limited workplace support and mental health concerns contributing to low job satisfaction.

Through Early Moves, we hope to inspire, motivate and equip practitioners with the skills and confidence to integrate creative dance into their practice.  

“When she first started off, she was a bit nervous about delivering the sessions,” says Kimberly, the manager of Buttercup Corner, referring to nursery practitioner, Emily. “She didn’t know whether she could keep the children dancing for the 10 to 15 minutes that was needed. She didn’t know whether she could engage the group of children. We’ve just seen her grow; her confidence has grown. I think it’s been good for her development, as well as that of the children.” 

Evidence-based interventions

With the first year of Early Moves fully funded by Arts Council England Place Partnership, we are working with 23 nurseries and 36 practitioners. By merging our expertise in movement and creative education with GMCA’s strategic vision for Greater Manchester as the world’s first Creative Health Region, we aim to create meaningful, evidence-based interventions. 

We are proud to be the first of multiple projects in a wider three-year initiative launching across Greater Manchester, working alongside local organisations and national partners such as ENO with their Breathe programme.

So this is just the beginning. Our vision is to scale the programme across the UK, partnering with more local authorities to ensure creative health becomes a cornerstone of early years education. 

We invite local authorities, arts leaders and policymakers to join us in championing creative health initiatives. Together, let’s create a future where every child has the opportunity to thrive through movement, play and creativity.