Behaviour Management

We believe 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. For many children, pre-school is the first situation that they have been in and the first time that they have had to accept the authority of people other than their parents. The different rules may initially confuse some children.

In order to achieve this:

All adults will try to provide a positive model for the children with regard to friendliness, care and courtesy and to offer strategies for handling any conflict.
All adults in the pre-school 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.
Adults in the pre-school will praise and endorse desirable behaviour such as kindness and willingness to share.
We 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:

No person will smack, slap, shake or shout at a child in order to control behaviour.

Children smacking, biting, pinching or injuring another child will be disciplined. This discipline will vary depending on the individual child e.g. age, ability to express themselves , etc. In every case the injured child will be comforted and the aggressor taken to one side where it will be quietly and calmly explained to the child why what he/she has done is wrong.

In extreme cases the aggressor will be sat at a table, e.g., play dough, and have an individual helper sat with them until the child has "calmed down". In any such incident, the person collecting each of the children concerned will be confidentially informed of the incident.

Any other inappropriate behaviour, e.g., spitting, bad language, rude gestures , etc., will be suitably dealt with at the time. Other more serious misbehaviour, such as racial or other abuse, the unacceptability of the behaviour and attitudes will be made clear immediately, by means of explanation rather than personal blame.

Any child exhibiting behaviour that is not acceptable to our pre-school rules will be corrected in line with this policy and any discipline will be administered in a consistent manner by all our helpers. It will be made clear to the child or children that it is the behaviour that is not acceptable not the child.

Adults in the pre-school will make themselves aware of, and respect, a range of cultural expectations regarding interactions between people.

Children will not be labelled and will not be banished to a "naughty corner" as a result of their behaviour.

Physical restraint, such as holding, will be used only to prevent physical injury to children or adults and/or serious damage to property. Any significant event of this sort will be recorded, and the parent informed the same day. Together it will be attempted to put in place strategies to overcome any unwanted or extremes of behaviour. If this does not improve behaviour or parents are unwilling to work with the setting, a final decision will be made by management to exclude the child until behaviours have been addressed and they can be guaranteed to not reoccur.

Every example of good behaviour will be used as an opportunity to praise your child. This will reward good behaviour with adult attention and should preclude attention-seeking displays of misbehaviour.

When participating in-group activities where sharing and social skills are exhibited, each child will be rewarded by praise and the allocation of responsible duties, e.g.,

Choosing the story book or activity
Collecting empty cups.

Recurring problems will be tackled by the whole pre-school, in partnership with the child's parents, using objective observation records to establish an understanding of the cause.

Adults will be aware that some kinds of behaviour may arise from a child's special needs.