Kinder Behaviour

Here at the Edron our philosophy is that as children grow and develop not only intellectually but also as humans. Therefore, in Kinder and throughout the school, our core business is supporting children to develop skills and capacities such as empathy, self-regulation, respect for others, patience and the ability to reflect and learn from one’s mistakes. 

The glue that holds all of this together are the strong, nurturing relationships that exist and are cultivated between parents, teaching staff and the children in the school. We aim to develop a connected and caring community, one in which every member feels safe, seen and supported. In this blog post we aim to share some of the ways we endeavour to achieve this in Kinder through our positive approach to behaviour and the use of restorative practices to support all students to express themselves, assert themselves when they feel they have been wronged and learn prosocial behaviours when they may have made a choice that has affected themselves or others negatively. 

Here are the building blocks for how we support children’s behaviour in Kinder, each of these elements build on one another and work together to ensure that each child feels safe, seen and supported:

• Safety & Safeguarding: first and foremost our role is to keep children safe and ensure that they are well. This is done through careful supervision and through ensuring that our environments are safe and risks are minimised. All staff are trained to safeguard children as well, on how to listen to their concerns and to refer these to Miss Ana Claudia and Miss Erika who lead on safeguarding at the school.
• Caring Relationships: Building on the foundation of safety and safeguarding, at the core of what we do is to create close, caring relationships with the children. So that they are known and understood and feel that they are seen and supported when in school. Through knowing our children and families well we can continue to support each child in an individualised and responsive way.
• Holistic and Positive Approach: we love to celebrate children’s progress and achievements and reinforce this through our core values which will be discussed shortly. We have many ways to celebrate a child’s achievements – in class through the collection of ‘Dojo Points’, through visiting Miss Ana Claudia and Miss Jenna for house points, through our Star of the Week and Term celebrations, through our ‘brag badges’ where people ask us about the amazing things we have been doing.
• Restorative Approaches to developing Prosocial Behaviour: we work with very young children who are learning all the time and who require differing levels of support in order to develop self-regulation, empathy and an understanding of prosocial behaviours. We do this through a restorative approach where mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn and understand better, we create social stories with children and encourage them to repair relationships when transgressions have occurred.

Coming Back to our Values: The ‘Edron Agreements’

Reflecting the whole school philosophy and building upon the procedures in Kinder we use a positive reinforcement approach to behaviour management – we believe that there is ‘no education without relation’ and place a strong emphasis on the creation of positive, caring relationships between all members of the Kinder. At the start of each academic year, each class must create a class contract outlining the ‘Edron Agreements’ aligned with each of our school values, this is designed to support children in understanding and living out our values:

● Responsibility: “Be responsible: think before you act and take ownership of your actions.”

● Respect: “Be respectful: listen and act respectfully to use good manners.”

● Positive attitude: “Be positive: always try your best, you might be surprised by what you can do!”

● Trust: “Be trustworthy: care for others and make them feel safe.”

● Honesty: “Be honest: tell the truth, always.”

● Fairness: “Be fair: show kindness to others and include everyone.”

Ways you can support at home:

• Talk to your children about their celebrations and challenges each day – what did they love about their day, what did they find difficult? 
• Draw pictures together or read stories that link to challenges they might be having, this can encourage them to talk more openly about what they are experiencing when they are talking about someone else they can project their feelings and may be more comfortable.
• Have regular contact with your classroom teacher and teaching assistant, share with them concerns, remember no concern is ever silly, no matter how small it might seem.
• When children share with you problems that they might have had at school, try and listen carefully without asking too many questions. If you do ask questions it is important for them to be open, such as “Tell me about what happened? How did that happen? Did you ask an adult for help?”. If you give children options such as “Did they hit you on your arm or your leg?” or closed questions such as “Did X say mean things to you today?” these can be ‘leading’ and can often confuse children and may not give you an accurate account of what really took place. However, as mentioned previously, always contact your child’s class teacher if you have any concerns or questions.

We are looking forward to sharing more information with you on this topic on Thursday 22nd of February at 8am. Please feel free to contact Miss Ana Claudia or Miss Jenna if you have any questions regarding the way we support behaviour in Kinder.

Further Resources to Support:

Literature to Help Children Manage Strong Emotions: https://www.easternct.edu/center-for-early-childhood-education/expert-interviews/using-literature-to-help-children-manage-strong-emotions.html

A Blog Post by Jenna Watson