Learning through play in a nurturing and empowering environment.
DEMOCRACY
With our youngest children we will encourage them to choose what songs they want to sing through actions or sounds. They will then take it in turns to sing everyone’s songs. We encourage and nurture their social skills to enable them to gain sharing and turn taking skills through playing in small groups.
As they get older we play games specific to turn taking and then free flow environment encourages collaborative play and sharing of resources. In our pre-school they have daily votes on what stories to read, to show them democracy in action so that they know their views count.
With our Stepping Up children- they are asked what activities they would like out when the staff are changing things over, so that they understand the value of asking people’s opinions and that you have to fairly distribute ideas.
RULE OF LAW
In our setting we have a few simple rules about tidying up that are agreed with the children. All staff follow the general rules of the nursery, such as no running or shouting indoors, so that the children understand that the rules apply to everyone.
We help children to distinguish right from wrong by using our positive behaviour management policy from babies onwards giving lots of praise for good decisions or acts.
If children are not using their ‘kind hands’ they will be moved away from the current activity to learn actions and consequences.
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY / MUTUAL TOLERANCE
Babies and children build their self-esteem and confidence through our positive behaviour management policy. Praise is given when children try things for themselves at meal times, the toddles using the potty or toilet or the pre-schoolers getting themselves ready to play outside independently.
Children are given choices at meal times to understand that others may have different opinions, starting with the choice of milk or water at snack time to deciding if they would like snacks at all in pre-school.
Art activities are open ended to allow children to explore without fear of getting something wrong or not meeting an end goal. Free-flow play also enables the children to develop their self-knowledge, opinions and risk taking abilities with an adult always close by for support.