Policies should be written with the child's emotional well-being at the centre. It is very important to work closely with parents/carers encouraging them to stay and to support their children and ensure that children and their families feel comfortable about being part of the school. The staff should help children to find their way around the nursery, introduce them to different areas indoors and outdoors as well as get children know and make sure they understand daily routine e.g. snack procedures, using toilets, story time, tidy up time, home time. The staff should be aware of the children’s needs, interests, what they like to play with, and provide activities which reflect their needs and interests and support children through group times.
I will get to know each child, establish relationships with parents, and support their strengths as well as their needs. I will express my own emotions and respond to the children’s emotions, valuing their feelings and helping them express what they are feeling. But above all, I will make sure that every child feels secure in my room and are comfortable coming to me as their teacher. I provide a positive relationship with the child through daily routines and interactions. I feel this gives the children and parents a sense of trust.
Teachers who truly value the family’s role in a child’s education, and recognize how much they can accomplish by working with families, can build a true partnership (Dodge, Colker, and Heroman, 2002, pg. 211). The curriculum is based around the theories of: Abraham Maslow (basic needs and learning), Jean Piaget (logical thinking and reasoning), Lev Vygotsky (social interaction and learning), Howard Gardner (multiple intelligences), and Sara Smilansky (play and learning). These theorist help mold the foundation for the curriculum that is used in many classrooms today. The Creative Curriculum enhances social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development.
E1: There are many parts to the role of the practitioner when they are meeting children’s learning needs some of these are working with families, providing a positive environment, and the children wellbeing. Working with families”, you should always make sure that you are approachable and friendly towards all parents so that they are happy about leaving their child with you” (Tassoni, 1999, pg. 315). This helps to meet children’s learning needs as the child’s primary career has a better understanding of the child and may be able to support the child when they are at home. I have seen this at placement where they run parent consolation’s twice a term, and if the teacher needs to see the primary career, they arrange meeting.
I create a loving and trusting environment by being warm and responsive to their needs. I use a gentle touch and a soft voice as I redirect them. My co-teacher and I work together on their individual and routine schedules, such as napping, eating and diapering. I talk with the parents about their thoughts on childrearing and try to use the ones that are appropriate for our classroom. I strive to organize my classroom environment and schedule to prevent problems.
1. As a teacher, I can promote resilience in my classroom by creating positive and caring relationships with my parents and children. Promoting caring relationships with my families would be top priority in my classroom. Parents have to trust that their children are safe and welled cared for when they leave their children in my care. For example, I would host a family day where the students can bring their parent s to school for the day.
This will promote their social and emotional development as the children are learning social skills as they will be more involved in the class for example setting up a café in the setting will help the children to learn to take on different roles and to work as part of a team. Practitioners can also offer practical help such as access to spare clean clothes/shoes, free school meals, lend learning resources and hand out reading books as some children may not have access to a book at home. Practitioners need to work in partnership with parents in order to understand the situation the family are in and so that they can support the needs within the setting. To gain the parents trust the practitioner must demonstrate appropriate respect when discussing the family situation. Practitioners must also be sensitive and respect confidentiality.
Parents / carers have a right to know how their children are managing in school and indeed the sharing of information means that parents / carers can follow the same processes at home should they choose to. Parents / carers are far more involved in the setting now. They may spend time in the setting, share ideas and most importantly, share information about their child with the practitioners. This is especially important in the case of children with Special Needs so that therapies, methods of calming etc can be passed on to the
This assists and is used as a guideline for teachers to help your child in their development areas. It informs us about the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes the learner has obtained (Davin, R.2013:32). By assessing the learner we are able to identify their learning style and allow us to prepare lessons in such a way that is best suitable to your child’s needs. Frequent assessments made by our teachers also assist parents to develop their children at home. Our teachers are able to provide exercises or activities to parents to practice at home with the learner thus reiterating what is being taught in the classroom.
I think that home visits with children and their families, supports literacy learning in the classroom and strengthens school/home partnerships. You really learn so much just from doing one home visit with a child. You not only learn things about children that you never would have known but you also learn their families and what they believe in. You get to see where the child comes from; and by knowing things like this, it can help you understand the child in the classroom more. You can also see if the children have any books at home.