Behaviour Management
Behaviour Management
Caring Hands Nursery believes that children flourish best when they know how they are expected to behave and should be free to play and learn without fear of being hurt or unfairly restricted by anyone else. We want the children to develop in:
- Self-respect, growing self-esteem and self-worth
- Pro-social behaviour including consideration and empathy for others
- The ability to guide their behaviour
- Social skills such as negotiation and problem-solving
We aim to provide an environment in which there is acceptable behaviour and where children learn to respect themselves, other people and their environment alongside the Fundamental British Values (HM Gov 2015) of “democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs”.
At Caring Hands Nursery, we believe it’s more productive to outline the behaviour that is expected from everyone in the setting this is done through introducing The Golden Values to our younger children and involving our pre-schoolers to being actively involved in formulating a Nursery Agreement. Our positive ground rules for everyone (including Staff, Parents, Children) are:
- We treat other people with consideration and safety
- We take care of the play resources
- We take turns when there is not enough for everyone
- We listen to each other and work together to solve problems
Identifying Children’s Behaviour
Many children in early learning settings display challenging behaviour and staff needs to trial, error and have patience to find the correct techniques to support the individual. We choose various methods including encouraging positive behaviour.
We know that continuous challenging behaviour is a symptom and to identify and understand the reasons behind, we might introduce an ABC form (Antecedent, Behaviour and Consequence form) is a behaviour-modification strategy that can help outline patterns in behaviours, which support staff in putting efficient strategies in place.
When using an ABC form, we look at
The time the behaviour was displayed
The children that were around
The environment the child was in
What happened before, during and after the incident
The trigger if there was one
This identifies some key points that the child is struggling with and that is causing the challenging behaviour. Very importantly, we keep our communication open and building partnerships with the parents. It’s an often a difficult conversation to have with parents so it’s important to be tactful and sensitive. We find out whether any of the same patterns of behaviour are seen at home by the parents and what strategies they are using to manage the child’s behaviour. We work closely with parents to find something that works and gives a child a set level of expectation and boundaries.
If our observations highlight some other areas of concern, then we get our settings SENDCO involved. If a referral is necessary, then Early Years Intervention team is involved who offer strategies or identify why the child is displaying challenging behaviour.