Building a sense of trust with families

Having recently embarked on my child protection course - I know a bit slow off the mark getting that done. One of the things I found most rewarding from the very high quality Community Child Care Cooperative (or CCCC for short) course was the great discussion on ethical practice and building a sense of confidentiality at your centre.

The trainer argued that in order to build a sense of trust and confidentiality in your centre, you needed to build a sense of trust and confidence in everything you do. For example, if a family mentioned in the morning that they had been to the zoo on the weekend - Instead of going around and telling everyone and getting very excited about links to home on your program (I know I'm guilty of it) she suggested that instead you ask the family first if they are ok with you sharing this information with others.

Her point was that if you do this with non-personal information when the family have more personal or private information to tell you they are more willing to share as they know not every person at the centre is going to know - which is obviously critical with child protection issues.

While I had never really thought of it this way before, I think she has an excellent point. Building trust with your families that you respect them and are willing not to 'talk out of school' about them is a very important part of building quality partnerships within.

I believe it is a very large part of our role to share our knowledge and skills with family about issues that face them... whether it be contacts, information or referrals I think this attitude could really help in building this aspect of our roles (and recognition of our skills in this area)

What do you think of this issue?

How do you build a sense of trust and confidentiality with families at your centre?

If you are a parent, what have you found builds your confidence in your centre to share information?





Photo Source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/valpearl/5103209989/

We play: hanging washing and raking leaves

This is part of the We play link up over at Childhood 101

As I have mostly involved in establishing systems and routines at my new centre. I feel like I have been missing out on my favorite part of being a early childhood teacher - play.

But on reflection and in a attempt to join in the great fun that is we play- I realized that there has been lots of meaningful play surrounding me of late.... And one of my favorite kinds house play.

While I have been hanging the washing out - the children have mimicked this behavior on the washing line that my wonderful colleague Danielle had put out with the babies and their clothes.

While I have been raking and sweeping the grounds - the children have been helping with their rakes and brooms and sometimes the adult size ones.

When I tidy up around me - the children, especially the two years olds, mimic this behavior in their play and immediately become more respectful of the toys and making sure they go back in their homes.

Integrating household chores and activities into the curriculum is a significant component of the Waldorf/Steiner philosophy including knitting and cooking. This has increasingly been integrated into most mainstream practices and is a major theme in the new early years learning framework. Part of this is building relationships with families and gaining an understanding of what they do at home with their children and bringing their skills and knowledge into the centre where possible

How do you bring a sense of home into your practice?

Belonging Y Chart

Please please please don't tell me this exist somewhere easy .... and I apologise for re-creating/stealing the idea and acknowledge the original source http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/eylfplp/newsletters/EYLFPLP_E-Newsletter_No5.pdf and highly recommend the whole document.


I just spent the last hour-ish whipping up a user friendly version of the Belonging Y Chart that is talked about (and pictured) in the latest EYLF newsletter.... you can access it here  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2yK5eVRe-QwOGJhYWZhYmEtMzNlOS00OTgzLWJkNDQtYjE4ODNlZGIzODhh&hl=en&authkey=CP7XqdsL


I am going to take this in tomorrow and use it as a conversation starter... the aim is to have staff and families contribute - still trying to work out if I'm going to have two - one in staff room and one next to diary - would love only one but am aware how some people (from both families and carers) find it intimidating and the aim is to start the conversation not squish it.

If you find it useful... would love to hear your input/stories

Nurturing a forest (community)

I realised that after spending ages thinking of the title of this blog I haven't actually made any attempt to explain it.

I decided on nurturing forests because it reflects my philosophy that through early childhood practices we can influence the community (and the community should be integrated as well). I started with growing forests but then realised this didn't reflect the roles of the families and communities and what impact they have on their children. The forest concepts represents the entire complex ecological system that is necessary to raise a happy, healthy, confident child (and a inclusive community for that matter).

A very strong interest of mine that has been heightened significantly since retraining into the early childhood field is the concept of community and building a sense of community with those around you. This can be as simple as saying hello to your neighbour (a big step in Sydney ) - we even mow our neighbours nature strip as she is away travelling a lot, smiling and wishing good morning to those on a walk to the other end of the scale where you are involved in volunteering for local community causes.

Other things I think are important are supporting people in need. For example, despite my salary being significantly reduced since retraining I still support the Red Cross by donating for natural disaster relief internationally, I have chipped in for the Queensland flood appeal and I always buy my big issue.....

I recently was annoyed at my parents for not chipping in to the flood appeal (and have told them off). But I realised today my dad has been volunteering for the bush fire brigades for approximately 30 years so he has made a substantial to the community in a cause he is very passionate about (He can't go to a house without assessing it for fire hazards and he is the only person I know who's idea of a good time is fighting huge fires in 40 degree heat). My dad has always done this work and it was major part of my childhood. However the reason it came home today was that today a man was killed by a tree when fighting fires with my dad - suddenly the dangerousness of it all hit home.

How do you contribute to your community? What practices at your centre reflect the impact and influence of child's entire ecological system?

But Why? Settling new children into the centre

I had a new starter today in my classroom. This is a bit of a rarity as our 2-3 room is much bigger than our preschool room so typically the children move up from the younger room.


This particular new starter is very bright....

• Child: I want to go to the pool (it was over 30 degrees)
• Me: Why don't you have a drink of water?
• Child: But why?
• Me: Well we don't have a pool
• Child: But why?

• I am hungry I want to have lunch now
• Me: we will soon can you wait?
• But why?

• Me: I am going on my break I will be back soon
• But Why?
• Me: I need to have some lunch
• But you have already eaten (true, i had the kids lunch)
• Me: Well I need a coffee...
• OK, I am starting to feel sad....

With this particular child talking her issues through seemed to work, after resolving each concern she would proceed to go on and play with the other children - but it doesn't always....

sometimes its alone time, or a special toy, or a particularly strong interest, or talking to parents/carers on the phone, or spending all day with a particular carer

I know (the brilliant) Sherry and Donna over at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning (www.playbasedlearning.com.au) have been talking about the playscapes they create to settle the children in such as water.

What do you use to settle your new arrivals into your classroom?