Transcript
[CHATTER]
SAMANTHA SWEET
At Pathways, we talk to the parents at the door every day. We speak to them at lunchtime when they come to pick them up. Sometimes, we even phone them just to say, we're a little bit unsure about this, we're a little bit unsure about that, or he hasn't been himself today. Could you help us and discuss any problems or any concerns that he or she may have?
[CHATTER]
CAROLINE JONES
It was good to have the informal time to be able to chat with parents without the restrictions of having the children, as they would normally do on the drop off and collection time, and they really valued that to get to know the staff in that sort of environment, rather than in the day to day nursery environment.
[CHATTER]
We're going to take a pew or a seat. That's the luxury one. The first person who arrives should be on that chair.
MAN
If you're naughty, you sit in the corner.
CAROLINE JONES
No, we don't have naughty corners anymore.
[CHATTER]
Thank you. Yeah, but you have to pretend you've got a small you-know-what to sit on the chair. Right. Good evening and welcome, everybody. It's lovely to see so many people here. We try to share information with parents in a variety of ways, really, because we rely on you and your information and your knowledge that you give us, but we like to share information with you.
There are two frameworks that we think about. One is called the Every Child Matters Outcomes. Now, that's really important because that's a big government agenda for every child, as the title indicates, not just children in early years, but in primary, secondary, and right up to 19, actually, in further education.
The second thing that I'm going to just tell you a little bit about is the Early Years Foundation Stage. We've left some copies out for you to have a look at, and that is actually what you might have called, when you were at school, a curriculum, and this is it. It consists of various things. There are some cards with principles and themes.
One of the themes is positive relationships. Obviously, that's something we've always done, but it's nice to see that it reflects what we have done and it's good for us for training our staff.
Then there's some practice guidance here, which gives us some ideas of the things that we might do with the children, how we might observe them, and activities we might do for them. And then there's some legal requirements. It's a lot more complicated than it might first appear, what we do in the nursery.
OK, so going back to the Every Child Matters Outcomes, I'll tell you what they are and a bit of the ways in which we try to promote them in the setting so that you, obviously, I'm sure anyway, can support us at home with these things. So the first one is about staying safe, or helping children to keep safe as well.
We do that in a number of ways. We keep the doors locked, we keep the gates locked, we have a visitors book, we do risk assessments, we check our equipment, we encourage the children to get their safety jackets out if they're going down to the field or out for a walk.
They need to support what the children are experiencing in the nursery and extend it when the children are in their home and vice versa. It also avoids parents having any misunderstandings or unnecessary concerns about what their expectations are from the nursery. If the expectations are set out clearly to the parents, either on verbal day to day contact, or in an evening, or in the brochures, then there's less likely to be any friction.
And then the final one, which is--
The partnership's a lot stronger if they understand why we do things the way we do, and maybe not always in the way that they might have expected.
But what we do try to plan for is the six areas of learning and development. This is the bit where you have to listen now. You'll see them around the room, and they're on the posters. There's one here and one on the parents' notice board, which I'm sure you've seen many times, and there are six areas of learning development, and these are the ones that I want you to look out for on the video.
We're not saying that children learn in separate boxes. They're all interlinked. They all link together somehow, but it's a very useful way to think about children's development and to spot where a child might need some extra support or where a child might be ahead of their age-- they might be at a stage ahead-- so we can meet each individual child's needs.
So what are the six areas? Well I should ask my staff this, really. Any volunteers to tell us any of the areas?
WOMAN
Personal, social, and emotional.
CAROLINE JONES
Right. It's our circle time. It's about feelings, it's about sharing.
If we had a lot of parents, I might have used and a bit of technology and actually had a PowerPoint. One parent commented, interestingly, that it would have been good to involve the other staff more in giving the presentation, and so that's something that we would definitely consider so people could actually talk about their own individual roles and responsibilities and have a little input into the presentation itself.
And then creative, which I think is really important, to express themselves so they can use their senses, they can use play dough, they can explore colour with painting, in the sand again, the water. Some of these resources cross the areas, but particularly about creating things for themselves, not an adult saying, stick this on here, stick that on there, paint this, paint that, but actually allowing children, giving them the resources so they can do the collage or whatever it is they want to do and explore their taste and their feel and their touch and everything.
So here, it's really important for us that we give a real emphasis to creative, and we do try to do that. Although the six areas are equally weighted, we try to emphasise personal, social, language, and creative, particularly for the two- to three-year-olds, and then maybe emphasise the problem solving, reasoning, [INAUDIBLE], and the other areas. Now, we're going to look at a video, a few clips. I said to the girls, try and cover the six areas, and try and covers the Every Child Matters Outcomes. Just watch it and see if you can try to identify what's going on.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[CHILDREN PLAYING]
TEACHER
That looks like a yummy lolly. What are you making?
BOY
[INAUDIBLE]
TEACHER
Pardon? Oh, yummy.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
CAROLINE JONES
I could see by their faces, quite a few were nodding imperceptibly, really, and that they were taking in what was being said and interested in finding out. Also surprised, I think, when they saw the video of their children in the nursery-- how much actually goes on. They made comments like, I never realised how much planning underpins everything that goes on in the nursery. When my child comes home, they don't say what they've done, and it's been great to have this view of what goes on in the nursery.
I see lots of PSE working together, cooperating.
MAN
Communication as well between each of them and to adults.
CAROLINE JONES
Lots of communication between adult and child, and child to child. I saw somebody trying to put a shoe on in the role play, so there's a bit of independence there, but also trying to explore on their own without an adult intervening. I wonder if I can get this on, so a bit of independence there. How many minutes was that we watched, about? Five? Possibly. I didn't actually time it. I haven't got a watch on, but about five.
And how many hours are the children here? Sometimes they're here three hours. Sometimes they're here seven hours. How are they going to tell you what they've done when they come home? They're not going to be able to, are they? But if a child is doing that much learning, if one child is going through those experiences in that five minutes, how much they're gaining actually from being in the group environment if it's well planned and structured with appropriate adults there? It's amazing.
And it is about partnership. We can't do it on our own. We've got a lot of experience, and good staff, and so on and so forth, but is also about partnership with parents, and talking to parents, and having the support of parents.
WOMAN
How do you check out your staff to protect our children?
CAROLINE JONES
We have got clear government guidelines that we follow, and they're minimum guidelines, so we go above and beyond that. So what would happen with us is, we would invite, somebody would apply for a post, or they might come and speak to us and say, I'd like to work in the nursery. Or we might advertise, not that we usually have to advertise, but if we do, we would then ask for a written letter of application and a CV. We'd speak to them on the telephone, and then we'd check up the two references.