Behaviour Management
We believe that children and adults flourish best in an ordered environment in which everyone knows what is expected of them and children are free to develop their play and learning without fear of being hurt or hindered by anyone else. We aim to work towards a situation in which children can develop self-discipline and self-esteem in an atmosphere of mutual respect and encouragement.
In order to achieve this:
- Rules governing the conduct of the nursery and the behaviour of the children will be discussed and agreed within the nursery and explained to all newcomers, children, their parents and nursery staff members.
- All nursery staff will ensure that the rules are applied consistently, so that children have the security of knowing what to expect and can build up useful habits of behaviour.
- All nursery staff will try to provide a positive model for the children with regard to friendliness, care and courtesy.
- Nursery staff members will praise and endorse desirable behaviour such as kindness and willingness to share.
- The nursery will take positive steps to avoid a situation in which children receive adult attention only in return for undesirable behaviour.
When children behave in unacceptable ways:
- Physical punishment, such as smacking or shaking, will be neither be used nor threatened.
- Children will never be sent out of the room by themselves.
- Techniques intended to single out and humiliate individual children such as the ?naughty chair? will not be used.
- Children who misbehave will be given on-to-one support by a nursery staff member in seeing what was wrong and working towards positive behaviour.
- Where appropriate this might be achieved by a period of ?time out? with a nursery staff member.
- In cases of serious misbehaviour, such as racial or other abuse, the unacceptability of the behaviour and attitudes will be made clear immediately, but by means of explanations rather than personal blame.
- In any case of misbehaviour, it will always be made clear to the child or children in question that it is the behaviour and not the child that is unwelcome.
- Nursery staff will not shout, nor raise their voices in a threatening way.
- Nursery staff will make themselves aware of, and respect a range of cultural expectations regarding interactions between people
- Any behaviour problems will be handled in a developmentally appropriate fashion, respecting individual children?s levels of understanding and maturity.
- Recurring problems will be tackled by the whole nursery, in partnership with the Childs parents, using objectives observation records to establish an understanding of the problem or possible cause.
- Nursery staff will be aware that some kinds of behaviour may arise from a Child?s special needs.
- If a child has been identified, as having special needs the staff would refer to the ?policy for children with special education needs? before any actions are taken.