Dear
Parents and Carers,
Carol
Service / Nativity
Thank
you to everyone who came to the Carol Service and Nativity Performances they
were a great success.
Christmas
Closure
The
Nursery will be closed from 4.00pm on Christmas Eve so that we send the staff
home for Christmas. We reopen as normal on Monday 4th January 2016.
Interactive
Learning Diary
Don’t
forget to check out all the exciting things your child has done this week, on
their ILD profile.
We
aim to put at least one observation up per week.
Policy
of the week
We will be displaying a different policy every week
at the bottom of this newsletter.
If you would like to see this or any of our
policies please ask Jess.
Our
Policy of the week: Behaviour Management policy
Useful
websites:
Here
are the links for the Surrey Family Information Service, Free Early Education
(the 15 hours funding) and Free Early Education for Two year olds.
Menus
There are no planned changes to this week’s menu.
See attached document for the weekly menu.
If you would like to see a copy of our allergens
menu at any time please ask!
This week’s activities
Each key person will be responsible for designing
an activity based on their key children’s needs; however, all children who are
in on that day will have the opportunity to access the activity too.
If the key person is on holiday or off, another
staff member will be able to lead the activity in their place so that the
children do not miss out.
For more information on the Early Years Foundation
stage, the guidance we use to support our planning and practice, please visit:
This week’s planned activities are also on the
ILD’S.
Buttercups
Monday – Shula’s group will be story telling using
puppets promoting listening and attention
Tuesday – Charlotte’s group are investigating the
floor keyboard and electronic drums and guitar supporting early ICT skills
Wednesday – Shula’s group will be exploring paint
with their hands encouraging an interest in the marks they make
Thursday – Mel’s group are discovering cornflour gloop
while using tools and animals to make marks
Friday – Mel’s group is singing ‘Five Little
Speckle Frogs’ using the story sacks gaining an awareness of numbers
Charlotte is off Monday, Mel is off Thursday, Nilem
is off Monday and Shula is in all week.
Bluebells
Monday – Almu’s group are using the ipads to take
photos of their friends and their favourite objects promoting ICT skills
Tuesday – Donna’s group is using coloured pencils
to create a picture encouraging language skills throughout
Wednesday – Donna’s group will be practicing
physical skills while using the bat and balls in the garden
Thursday – Megan’s group are looking at emotion
pictures and stories investigating the emotions they know
Friday – Chloe’s group are playing the missing
object game. The children will be encouraged to remember what objects have been
hidden!
Donna is off Friday, Chloe is off Thursday, Almu is
in all week and Megan is on holiday Monday – Wednesday.
Sunflowers
The Sunflowers have one detailed weekly focused
activity to ensure all the children have the opportunity to take part in it.
This will work alongside their weekly planned
activity list which you can see in the room and on the ILD’S.
This week’s activity is: Creating Christmas
presents for our families.
The children will be practicing their fine motor
skills while decorating their Christmas gifts for their families. Their hand
eye co-ordination will also be supported while they are sticking different
craft pieces on. The activity will be extended and the children will be asked
to describe the different textures they feel throughout.
The letter of the week is: E
The children will be:
Writing the letter E with stencils
Thinking of objects that begin with E?
Finding animals beginning with E
Playdough fun with E stencils
Pretending to be Elephants
What can we see in the letter E bottle?
Using the E alphabet soup can
Leanne is off Tuesday and Wednesday, Becci is in
all week and Hector is off Thursday.
Behaviour Management policy
Aim
of policy
To
clearly show how we manage behaviour of the children in our care. This policy
will promote, encourage, reinforce and reward positive behaviour, enabling
children to develop a sense of appropriate behaviour and a positive self-image.
Points
to consider
Each
child is different and will respond to different methods of behaviour
management. The child’s key person can support other practitioners in managing
behaviour by giving them information about the child.
Castle
Daycare and Preschool aims to achieve this by:
- Never
physically punishing a child.
- Having
a consistent approach to behaviour management and develop effective
strategies using positive methods appropriate to the individual child.
- Promoting
good behaviour at all times through praise and positive reinforcement.
- Practitioner’s
role modelling good behaviour and language.
- Ensuing
that all staff, students and anyone else working with the children is
aware of how good behaviour is promoted and negative behaviour is
addressed.
- Helping
the children to understand the consequences of negative behaviour.
- Helping
children to challenge bullying, harassment and name calling.
- Encouraging
the children to be responsible through activities such as tidying up and
creating their own rules.
- Reassuring
children that they are valued even if their behaviour is sometimes
unacceptable.
- Providing
interesting, stimulating and fun activities, children who are not engaged
in activities can become bored and misbehave.
- Providing
adequate care routines. Children who are hungry or tired can misbehave.
Inappropriate
behaviour almost invariably occurs when a child’s fundamental needs are
frustrated. The staff should always consider what the child’s needs are
and how they can best be met in the Nursery.
Nursery
staff will act as appropriate role models and should encourage the development
of a positive self-image in the child.
In
order to function acceptably, children need to feel valued and accepted in a
group – to feel secure with the adults caring for them and with the routine of
the nursery.
Our
staff will work with the children to agree acceptable boundaries. Young
children are still very egocentric and much of what society deems desirable,
e.g. politeness, honesty, consideration for others, will be recognised and
understood through expert role modelling.
We
need children to understand what is required of them and why. Staff at
our nurseries need to give consistent messages and guidelines for acceptable
behaviour.
Positive methods are more effective than negative ones in
shaping the behaviour of children. Rewards and distractions are
preferable to punishment. Children need to know that despite their
inappropriate behaviour we still ‘love’ them. It is the behaviour we
dislike, not the child. Nursery staff should praise a child whenever they
can. They should give individual time and attention to the child.
Staff should encourage children to talk over a problem,
anticipate and remove potential problems or re-direct them. Staff should
value the tangible contributions that the child offers, including drawings and
pictures brought from home. Each child should be given the opportunity to
‘shine’ at a particular activity or skill.
Children should know that staff like their family.
Staff should develop partnerships with parents and ensure that parents are
fully informed about support and the policies and strategies used for managing
unacceptable behaviour.
Nursery staff should be consistent in their treatment of
children; there should be fairness in access to toys, etc. The same
treatment should apply for both the individual and the group. The rewards
given should be consistent – in praise for actions, favours and
privileges. Staff should remember to reward children when they are good.
The staff should be aware of making emotional moral
judgements. We believe if a child is labelled; there is a danger of
negative expectation.
Account must be taken in each case of the age and stage of
the child’s development and staff should modify their expectations in light of
the child’s level of maturity and ability. Goals should be specified
precisely in language everyone, including the child, can understand. They
should be broken down into small steps, starting with what the child can be
relied upon to achieve and building up slowly.
If sanctions are carried out, they should be appropriate –
they should also be given at the time of the inappropriate behaviour, be
relevant and fair. Never issue a warning or condition that is unrealistic
– be prepared to carry it through.
Methods
of dealing with unacceptable behaviour
Distraction
To avoid potential unacceptable behaviour – divert the
child’s attention. Offer the child something more attractive and positive
to do – if possible, let them ‘help’ you to do something. This may be
particularly useful with young children who do not understand verbal reasoning.
Individual
attention
Physically removing the child from the situation can stop
undesirable behaviour by giving the child time to stop and think away from the
problem, object or situation. If a child needs to be removed from a group
activity, the time spent outside the group gives them a chance to see what they
are missing. Such time out should be brief but immediate. The child
should not be removed from the room unless this sanction has not worked.
Reprimand initially should be a private affair between the
member of staff and child. In the nursery, staff members need to have
established the meaning of talking to the child ‘in a stern voice’ – this is
not shouting.
Staff should remember that there is a need to ‘build a warm
bridge’ again as soon as possible – conflicts should never linger.
Removing the
object
This can work in the same way as taking the child away but an
alternative activity should be offered.
Physical
restraint
This can help with tantrums where a child is in danger of
hurting themselves. If physical intervention is seen as
appropriate, ensure that the intervention is achieved with minimum force and
for minimum time. (As per Safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare
as part of the Statutory Framework for The Early Years Foundation Stage). Any
time physical restraint is used, an incident form must be completed.
Biting behaviour must be recorded in the Incident Book but
staff should not disclose the name of the biter when talking to the parents of
the bitten child. See the biting policy
In this setting the Behaviour Management officer is Caroline
Laidlaw
Any child presenting difficult behaviour on a regular basis
should become the subject for close observation. Staff should identify:
· The
nature of the behaviour
· Factors
or circumstances which trigger it
· Timing
– when and for how long
· People
involved
· How
does it end
The observations need to be written and examined for
identifiable patterns and then decisions made about future handling. Such
written observations can provide objective evidence in discussion with parents
and other professionals.
An incident book should be kept in the nursery to record
incidences of severe inappropriate behaviour, i.e. behaviour that causes injury
to another child.
Staff should share their anxieties with others and remember
that they are only human and may need time out too. It is not a sign of
personal failure to ask for help and advice; it is a sign of maturity,
intelligence and understanding.
Staff should always take time to stand back from situations
and observe.
Never physically punish a child. A common sense
guideline is that staff should only physically remove a child from a situation
if they are at physical risk of endangering themselves or the safety of others.
SMACKING, BITING OR SHAKING OF CHILDREN IN THE NURSERY IS
FORBIDDEN
Remember that corporal punishment (smacking, biting, and
shaking) is illegal, as is depriving a child of food or drink or forcing a
child to consume it.
In addition, staff must not use practices that humiliate or
frighten children such as poking fun, sarcasm, shouting, using derogatory
language, verbal or physical threats or taunts.
Violence or abuse of a child by a staff member will result in
instant suspension pending a full investigation which will lead to dismissal if
proved to be valid.
Any programme of behaviour management needs to be
continuously evaluated.
There are no hard and fast rules or answers to dealing with
problem behaviour – what may be an answer for one child’s individual needs may
not be suitable for another.
Kind
Regards
Jess
Smith
Manager, SENCO
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