Hello Jenny
As a retired Preschool Manager, I can say that I’ve tried many, many ways of planning over the 25years. I found it very variable, and what worked with one group of children didn’t always work with another. I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rule, as long as there’s some evidence of planning, and you can justify and explain your methods properly.
Hours can be spent planning, only to find that it’s not in the direction that the children want to go at all!
My children had individual plans, based on what I considered were their next steps in learning, and as long as I could tie that into whatever direction we ended up going, and show good progression, then I didn’t worry too much about it.
Of course, I’ve been retired for 6 years now, and things will have moved on. Hopefully though, children’s progression has stayed the same.