Day two at Wingate

I came to the nursery early today as I was invited to join in on the group time that children experience on arrival. Each child is part of a small group of eight children that meets with a key educator throughout the day. The children arrive and are able to play with activities as they wait for everyone to arrive and for the group time to begin. 

Mandy, the key educator for this small group begins by collecting the various items children brought to talk about and these are put on the table each child tells his or her peers about it. Mandy asks open questions, such as "what can you tell us about this." and the child responds with descriptions and ideas. Other children are free to comment and respond, always with the expectation that they listen to the person that is speaking and not interrupt others. The conversation flows easily, children are respectful of each other and the educator facilitates without taking over. It reminds me a bit of meal times around the family table. There are no hands up, no stilted silences while children attempt to answer meaningless questions. 

Mandy has a note pad and a pen and reminds the children of what they had started thinking about from yesterday's meetings.  One of the children is going to celebrate a birthday in a month at the beginning of May so an advent calendar had been started with ruled lines and approximations of numbers. The children are then asked their ideas about how to finish this project. Options for holding chocolates are suggested and agreed upon. When it came to play time the children were expected to commit to something that the group has been working on at least for some of the time and are supported in this. A busy hub of activity is the result, with children collaborating in small groups to get the agreed tasks completed, sometimes with the help of educators but also independently. There is an air of constructive purpose as children go about these tasks. Some were designing a park for chickens, some were decorating a cake, others were building a home for dragons and others went onto the workroom to work on designs. A small group were outside to make a picnic for the chickens. There were numerous projects going on at the same time, all child led and child driven. 

I joined the group of children outside in the mist and the rain with their key educator Glynis. They were collecting bugs and creepy crawlies to make a picnic for the two chickens. Oh boy, here we go again. Poor worms. I did advocate for the beautiful black beetle though and he got to go in a little cage with bark and soil to keep him comfortable until it's time to release him. 

With Glynis's support the children shared the food they had prepared, including cheese, pasta, and mini beasts. It had to be fair and mathematical knowledge was promoted with the use of words like half, some more, a bit less. They divided and shared the picnic, decided on how many worms to sacrifice and how many to set free and what to do about the slugs. Seven slugs were put back under a log, three more were found to have escaped and were still on the table top. How many altogether?

So you get the idea don't you? The scope for authentic and contextual learning was provided, facilitated, deepened. The children were highly involved, engaged and were given opportunities for leadership. 

When we came back in the children again gathered in small groups with their educators. I sat with the group that had been preparing the chickens' picnic.  The discussion centered on what the children knew, what they had discovered and what they were thinking about. Glynis took notes and assured the children that this would help her to remember what they had learnt and what she needed to bring to tomorrow's learning. 

During these 'family group times' the discussions are free flowing, give every child a voice and encouraged the children to share their ideas and knowledge. At one point the little beetle was found within its protective compost and taken out for a closer look. A child enthusiastically asked to hold it and in a blink it had disappeared. There was then a frantic search while all needed to keep still so as not to crush it. We decided it had gone, was lost, probably in the dark space under the cupboard. 

The discussion resumed until a little girl, eyes popping and body squirming announced that the beetle was in her jumper. A bit of a search revealed nothing. She sat back down, seeming only partly assured. In minutes she was up again, giggling and squirming and the beetle popped out of the neck of her top. She jumped with the tickling and then disaster! The beetle ended up on the lap of the one child who had been saying constantly "I don't like beetles". Well Glynis kept her calm but that beetle was fast and jumpy. It was eventually recovered amongst much squealing and laughter and the child who didn't like them was very still while the beetle was snaffled and put safely back in its container. Crisis averted! We all congratulated that little girl in being so calm when she really hated having the little bug on her. I was impressed with her resilience. 

Documentation is something I looked at in close detail today. They do a great deal of high quality documentation all based on the children's interests and activities. I like that there is a variety of methods used, from learning stories to snippets of learning to ideas on possible lines of development, noted conversations transcribed and plenty of photographs as well as children's artwork. Parent input is invited through various means and some of the children's learning journals contain notes and stories from home as well as lots of home literacies such as tickets, maps and programs gleaned from outings on weekends. The educators keep their own journal where they document their family group times. Also, the walls tell the stories of significant things that children are learning about. 

The children's journals are so comprehensive and give such a clear picture of each child's passions, learning and development that they could stand alone as the documented program, although here they are also expected to keep comprehensive developmental records as well as develop child profiles in addition to the portfolios.  The journals, however, show a cycle and progression of development and learning and focus deeply on projects that the child has been engaged in. They are a record of the educators curriculum, true and authentic. They connect to the children's worlds. The staff are given great autonomy in developing these and none of the educators on the floor are fully qualified early childhood teachers. They all have EC qualifications of varying levels and their knowledge and passion for how young children learn and their part in the journey shines through. They are in a supportive learning environment that has high expectations of everyone, and the staff here live up to these expectations. 

So here I sit on my bed in my hotel sipping a delicious red wine and thinking I should be out, but I'm so tired. My brain hurts, it is so full of all the wonderful things I've been shown today. Wingate have developed a number of training resources and I've purchased a few to work through with my teams back in Australia. 

I would like to mention before I close for the evening, that Lyn, the lady who cooks the meals for the day care children, kindly made my lunch today. I was invited to share in the children's curry and Lyn made a vegetarian version just for me. It was truly delicious and made all the more so by her kind hospitality and by the wonderful company of Paddy and Beccy. 

Thank you also to Glen for our afternoon chat, and to all of the staff and children for welcoming me so whole heartedly. 

Bye for now. Talk tomorrow.