Unit 1 Childcare and Education Essay Example

Unit 1 Childcare and Education Essay Unit 1 an introduction to working with children E1 1. Gainsborough Primary and Nursery school is located on Belgrave Road, Crewe, Cheshire, CW2 7NH, Tel. 01270 685328. The school is aimed at boys and girls from the ages of 3 to 11, provides nursery and school services and it is entirely free for the children to attend. The school is separated in to three sections; one for the children attending the nursery aged 3 to 4; another for children from 4 to 7 years who are educated in the lower school and another for children from 8 to 11 years who are educated in the junior school. . Rainbows is held at Union Street Baptist Church, Union Street, Crewe, Cheshire, CW2 7DJ, Tel: 01270 652151. Rainbows is a voluntary group for young girls aged 5 to 7. Rainbows is a place where young girls can enjoy crafts, games and outings. This organisation encourages young girls to get involved with others in their area and have group discussions allowing them to think for themselves. Rainbows says that it is ‘an opportunity for her to develop – it’s an opportunity to Look, Learn, Laugh, Love. ’ 3. Tinks Children’s Day Nursery Ltd is located on Jubilee Avenue, Crewe, CW2 7PR, Tel: 01270560083. Tinks provides both before and after school care for children from the age of 0 to 5. Tinks prices range from ? 120 per week for 5 half days and ? 185 for 5 full days. â€Å"Tinks staff will care for your baby or very young child on an individual basis, taking into account your childs sleeping patterns, your child will also be kept in a safe and stimulating environment and their development will be monitored. † http://www. tinksnursery. co. k/ Slightly older children will be slowly introduced to the pleasures of education, play and social interaction. Self-discipline and respect for others are also introduced and enforced and Staff will carefully monitor the children’s progress, both physical and intellectual. E2 †¢Tinks helps by reducing the stress in the household for parents who need to know their children are in a safe environment whilst going to work. Tinks also helps parents by ensuring that their children make friends and gain their first stages of education. We will write a custom essay sample on Unit 1 Childcare and Education specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Unit 1 Childcare and Education specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Unit 1 Childcare and Education specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The children are helped by Tinks as it allows them to gain new experiences and skills. †¢Rainbows helps parents by giving their children opportunities to experience new activities at a young age. It also gives parents an opportunity to work or enjoy leisure at no cost. Rainbows helps young girls by allowing them to socialise with others of their age and helps them to gain useful life skills, for example how to set up a tent. †¢This school helps a wide range of children obtain a free education allowing the children to develop skills both social e. . independence and behaviour. The families of pupils are helped by the school to have a say in their children’s education via email or telephone and the school also provides a safe environment for the children to play allowing parents to work and earn money for the family without worrying about their children. The children are also helped greatly by the school for example learning important life skills and making friends. E3 - There are two main legislations in the UK that support the rights of children. The first of these is the Children’s Act 1989 which was as a result of the UK adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This act is well known for its stance that the welfare of children is paramount and made it clear that their needs and interests come first, the act also covers child protection and parental responsibility as well as inspection of settings and made it clear that children’s/young peoples views were to be taken into account when considering future decisions concerning their lives. The Children Act 2004 built on the 1989 act. This act instigated Every Child Matters which promoted the wellbeing of children and contained five aims, It wanted children to be healthy, Stay safe, Enjoy and achieve in education/life, achieve economic wellbeing and to make a positive contribution. This led to the introduction of effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and parents by the local governments e. g. opticians or speech and language therapists. These organisations were to work together in multi-disciplinary teams to promote children’s wellbeing. The programme’s goal is that every child, whatever their circumstances, has the support they need†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tassoni et al 2007 page 16 E4- There are 4 main EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) principles that underpin working with children. The first of these principles (a Unique Child) states that all children must be seen as individuals who should be learning and developing confidence and independence from birth. An other of these principles (Positive Relationships) states that it is imperative that children learn to build positive relationships with the staff/Key person, the other children and their families. Another of these principles (Enabling Environments) states that the environments where children can learn/develop must meet the children’s individual needs e. g. adapted activities for those at different stages of development. The final principle (Learning and Development) states that all children learn and develop at different rates and in different ways, the practitioner needs to be aware of this and how to inter-connect all areas of learning and development. Three values that underpin working with children are; physical punishment should not be used under any circumstances; the spiritual beliefs, culture, values and customs of the child/family should be respected; the parent/parents/one in current parenting role of the child must be respected as the primary educator/educators of the child. â€Å"The EYFS will ensure all babies and children from birth to five receive high quality care and education from whichever early years setting they attend. † http://www. tameside. gov. uk/earlyyears/foundation/intro E5- It is important to value and respect all children in the setting because every child no matter where they originate from, what language they speak, which gender they are or whether or not they have a disability deserves equal opportunities. This means that practitioners cannot value certain children above others as this will deprive certain children of the attention they may require to develop in confidence. It is important that children feel valued as this raises their self esteem and will help the practitioner to build a positive relationship with them. Practitioners can make children feel valued by making sure that they listen to the children and take their views into account; they can also acknowledge children’s efforts and achievements and give positive feedback; taking into account their ideas and interests is also important as the practitioners can make an effort to include these in activities and finally practitioners also need to listen to the children’s fears and concerns. Respecting them is also crucial as it helps them to learn the appropriate way to respect others and will make them feel that their views are being listened to. Practitioners can show that they respect the children by listening to them; taking time for each one of them; giving them equal opportunities; empathising with them and finally praising and encouraging them. â€Å"As an early year’s practitioner, you need to be able to meet every child’s needs and understand that all children are special and unique. † Tassoni et al 2007 page 7 E6-Three professional skills that will support the practitioner in the workplace are organisation, communication and observation. Organisation is very important when working with children because the practitioner must be able to plan engaging and suitable activities/lessons that will achieve positive results and that the child will learn from. It is also useful for time keeping allowing each child to have a chance to discuss fears and worries or interests and ideas with the practitioner. Communication is very useful when working with children because it allows practitioners to get to know the children through discussions or talks with parents, staff or the children themselves. It also allows the practitioner to engage in open conversations enabling them to obtain positive responses and ideas for future reference. It is also important because it allows cooperation between children, parents and practitioners. Observation is a useful skill when working with young children because it allows the practitioner to gain information from the children for use in the workplace for example when planning activities or for the parent to use at home. Observation is also key when identifying issues certain children are having such as struggling to read or write which can be acted upon with support and adapted activities E7- I feel that it is important to develop a range of study skills to help to support my learning; these will include note taking, time management, reading and listening. These are important because: Note taking is important because it not only allows you to accumulate knowledge but it also allows you to produce useful information that is easily legible and that will be useful in the future when revising the topic/topics. Time management is an important skill because it allows you to make time plans which will help you keep to deadlines and revise a range of things methodically. It will also be useful in placement because it will allow you to be conscious of time spent on certain tasks/ activities that need completing. Reading is an important skill because it will help you to extract useful information from text that will help when planning activities or lessons e. g. (children’s files or work books). Reading will also help the practitioner to converse with children about books they have read or work the child/children have done and it will help develop skills which will support learning e. g. (extracting useful information from a book/website) Listening is very important as it will aid the practitioner when talking with children and will help to find out information on children and their individual needs. It will also enable the practitioner to engage in open conversations with children, parents or other team members. E8 AuthorDate of publicationTitleName of publisher Tassoni et al2007CACHE level 3 childcare and education 4th editionHeinemann Websites †¢http://www. tinksnursery. co. uk/ †¢http://www. tameside. gov. uk/earlyyears/foundation/intro †¢http://www. peelearlyyears. com/pdf/Three%20way%20talk. pdf D1- It is important for the practitioner to develop and maintain positive relationships with other professionals for many reasons. Primarily it is important as work in the setting will require cooperation and teamwork to obtain optimum results when working with the children, planning activities and talking with parents. Also cooperation between staff will make the shared vision of promoting children’s welfare more achievable and easier to maintain within a large group as the staff can share skills, information and advice. However, relationships between staff must be appropriate, staff should treat each other as friends (not close friends) not as family as this may cause tension and reduce professionalism as other staff may feel that they aren’t getting fair treatment and may be ignored or have their opinions rejected. It is important to develop and maintain positive relationships with children’s parents for many reasons. Relationships with parents are most important as they affect both how the child/ children act and how the parent/ parents act. Negative relationships between parents and practitioners may be picked up on by the children who may respond by accumulating a similar attitude toward the staff or they may feel estranged and may be uncomfortable in the setting. Relationships are also important as staff and parents may need to share sensitive or confidential information which requires trust and cooperation. Parents need to feel that their children are safe and are being looked after for them to leave their children with the staff. â€Å"The children need to feel secure with you, but they also benefit from seeing that you communicate with their parents in a friendly way. Young children need to see the social connections between their important adults, rather than getting the idea that their lives operate as separate compartments. † http://www. peelearlyyears. com/pdf/Three%20way%20talk. pdf D2- There is many characteristics of working in a multi agency team. These characteristics are vital when ensuring the ‘optimum way to give children the best start in life‘is applied. One characteristic of working in a multi agency team is that members share knowledge, information and skills with one another to make the job of supporting children easier. This is useful because it allows the different members to help one another, share their advice or opinions on how to manage certain situations and cooperate. Another characteristic of working in a multi-agency team is that there is a shared vision e. g. ensuring that children are cared for. It is important that members of a team have a shared vision because this minimalizes any disagreements on issues and ensures that everyone is working to achieve similar goals which make these goals more achievable. Another characteristic of a multi-agency team is that they have good communication. This is important as it means that members can pass on information easier and cooperate. This means that any information which could be considered important or useful is shared with who it would be appropriate or useful to, or it means that members respect each other and listen to each other. Another characteristic is that the team works together to overcome obstacles and to achieve goals. This makes goal more achievable as there are several members working to the same end. Also this makes any obstacle more approachable as any advice is shared. Another characteristic is that there are many different branches of the team. These different groups are each as useful as one another and provide different attributes to the team. This makes working together important as shared knowledge and skills can produce and efficient force to tackle any issues or aims. C- It is important to listens to children’s views and value their opinions for many reasons. Each child is different so the way we utilise this knowledge should be considered. One reason why we should listen to children’s views is that it shows that we respect them and this should generate a positive response either by the child showing respect to others or by the child feeling that they can approach you about anything and that they will be listened to. Listening to them also helps to generate self-esteem as it makes them feel good about themselves, confidence as it makes them more open about issues or views and shows that we value them as an individual. One reason why we should value children’s opinions is because these can help us determine which methods are most useful when getting children involved and these opinions can generate useful information when coming to terms with the planning of activities as we can discover which children enjoy certain approaches to learning and which don’t. Another reason why we listen to children’s views is that one of the laws enclosed in the UNCRC (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) states that one basic human right for the child is that they have the right to express and have their views taken into account. It is important that we make the welfare of children paramount in the setting so sticking to the UNCRC is crucial when accumulating positive results. Another reason why we value the opinions of children is that the Children Act 2004 works to ensure that children ‘enjoy and achieve through learning’. To make sure that children do this we must plan and base activities around topics that they both enjoy and will find stimulating when taking part in activities. B- There are four main areas when considering your role and its limits and boundaries in the setting. One reason that practitioners understand the limits and boundaries of their work is due to health and safety. Keeping children safe is crucial but the role the practitioner takes when addressing this is depending on their skill, training and job description or designation. Every setting will have designated first aiders and policies regarding any sustained injuries or accidents. Understanding your role in this matter is important because mistakes can be easily made regarding medical care so ensuring that the children get the best possible is paramount any incorrect procedures carried out however serious must be prevented and the correct methods used by experienced staff members. Another reason why it is important that practitioners understand the limits and boundaries of their work is due to child protection. Every setting will have a child protection policy that needs to be addressed with the utmost responsibility. Every practitioner must find out whether or not a badge is required, if they need to sign in/ out and what is required of them when it comes to contact with children. Physical contact with children is allowed to a certain degree but the setting supervisors and parents will require assurance of their children’s welfare. Another reason that practitioners understand the limits and boundaries of their work is due to childrens behaviour. Children’s behaviour in the setting is usually good but isolated incidents will occur and as a practitioner it is important that you understand where you stand when it comes to dealing with these incidents. Also encouraging children to become overexcited must also be prevented as this may cause more frequent incidents and the children need to be learning and developing in exciting ways but never in a way that will induce unwanted behaviour. Another reason that practitioners understand the limits and boundaries of their work is due to confidentiality. In the setting you will gain knowledge about the children, your colleges and the childrens parents. Understanding which information can be shared with others is very important, a leak of any sensitive information can be very upsetting and may compromise your settings policies and the trust between the parents and the staff. A-It is important to have a child centred approach in the early years setting because it allows children to become the main focus which means that their development, progress and earning is paramount and they will have equal opportunities to succeed. Producing a successful child centred environment involves cooperation between setting staff and parents which helps identify individual needs and issues faced by the children which may affect their approach to learning. The response to these will be vital when creating an environment that provides every child with equal opportunities and attention. Each child in an early years setting has their own learning style, needs and interests these need to be registered and acted upon to be dealt with successfully by the practitioner who will have observed how best to address these issues and generate a stimulating and beneficial activity/activities which promotes optimum development. A child centred environment also has to have relevant and effective health and safety measures. Any issues need to be addressed and dealt with in a Way that promotes the welfare of the children. First aiders should always be in the vicinity and medical supplies must be available to access with ease to ensure the safeguarding of the children. Children at a young age need to be the centre of attention and it is important that they are given the best care, protection and education possible. A child centred approach is the best way to achieve these goals because it makes the child’s welfare paramount which meets the need to be the centre of attention as practitioners assure that each child gets equal attention and care. A child centred approach also produces security in the setting which is very important when protecting children from harm at an early age when they are vulnerable to many hazards, an example of a security precaution in a child centred environment would is taken into account when planning activities, lessons and one on one meetings be security doors that prevent unauthorised access into the building by strangers who could pose a potential threat or exit by the children who may get injured away from help or lost. Finally a child centred approach in an early years setting is important because it raises the standard of children’s education by a marginal proportion as everything is taken into account and built upon to produce efficient, effective and beneficial results.