Behaviour & Discipline

Our Behaviour Management Policy is designed to ensure the well being of the children and to give parents / guardians confidence in us as their chosen childcare provider.

We aim to work with the children to enable them to develop self-discipline and self-esteem in an environment of mutual respect and encouragement.

In order to achieve this, the following procedures must be followed:

  * 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, both children and adults.
  * All adults in the nursery will ensure that the rules are applied consistently, so that the children have the security of knowing what to expect and can build up useful habits of behaviour.
  * All adults will try to provide a positive model for the children with regard to friendliness, care and courtesy.
  * Adults in the nursery will praise and endorse desirable behaviour such as kindness and willingness to share.
  * We will work on a positive behaviour basis, a child can be a member of staff's helper, children will have special privileges for good behaviour, and good behaviour will be rewarded.
  * We will work with flash cards, for example on expected behaviour of the nursery; using good manners, respecting others, keeping the nursery tidy, taking turns and sharing.
  * We will reward good behaviour with stamps or stickers, they can choose their favourite activity. There are no specific times for stamps or stickers just when a child has behaved well, helped tidy up etc. For the older children we also have a sticker chart which has 4 columns one for tidying up, one for good manners, one for mealtimes, and one for good behaviour. The children receive stickers throughout the day which they put in the relevant columns. At the end of each week the child(ren) with the most stickers receives a star of the week certificate.
  * We will take positive steps to avoid a situation in which children receive adult attention, only in return for undesirable behaviour.

When a child behaves in an undesirable way a member of staff will speak to them and ask them to stop. If the behaviour continues the child is given a period of ‘time out' where they spend a few minutes with an adult to discuss the behaviour before returning to the group. This will only be used with children whose knowledge & understanding allows them to understand the sanction, the period of time will be equal to one minute per year of their life. This gives the child some space away from what they were doing and an opportunity to talk with an adult to help them understand the reasons they are in ‘time out'. What the child did that is unacceptable will be explained to them and also the reasons why.

For example If a child hits another child with a toy it is explained to the child in a calm manner that it is not a nice thing to do, that it makes the other child sad / hurts them / makes them cry, and that when you are nice and share toys it makes the other child happy.