Behaviour Policy

We aim to form supportive relationships with children where they are encouraged to play alongside and with others, learn to share, take turns, consider the feelings and needs of others and learn the life skills that underpin their social development.

The Nursery Manager is the designated practitioner responsible for behaviour management in Ladybirds Nursery

The Assistant Nursery Manager is the deputy designated practitioner responsible for behaviour management in Ladybirds Nursery

Each child has an allocated key person who will work with them to support and nurture them as they learn through play.  All qualified staff are fully competent in managing behaviour consistently and will model the expected behaviour, promoting friendships, negotiating with others, and listening and responding to others concerns and needs.  The needs of an individual child may be discussed during staff meetings to ensure that we use the most effective strategy in order to best support the child.

At Ladybirds we practice a policy of positive feedback, we pay attention to and reward good behaviour through worthy praise, gestures and eye contact, thus giving little value to inappropriate behaviour. We tell the child what is expected of them. Adults manage behaviour in a quiet, non confrontational manner without drawing attention to the children, ensuring their feelings of self worth and confidence are maintained.

Corporal punishment will never be given or threatened to a child.  It is an offence for a person who regularly cares for a child, within an early years setting, to fail to comply with this regulation.  A person failing to comply with this regulation commits an offence and the matter will be reported to Ofsted and the Disclosure and Barring Service more information may be found within our Allegations Against Staff Policy, which is part of the Policy for Safeguarding Children.

Where physical intervention may be used as a last resort, to prevent injury or death, the parent will be informed and the incident recorded in the accident and incident book.

Children are encouraged to be polite and use good manners.  Adults role model this behaviour and support children with gentle reminders and reward good manners with verbal praise.

Ladybirds have three rules which are promoted by adults and children;

• Quiet voices
• Walking feet
• Gentle hands

Our Ladybird rules support children as they move around the nursery, play with others, interact with other children and adults, negotiate during play with others. They promote a positive and supportive environment.

Young children may not have fully developed verbal skills and may use non verbal communication such as hands to push or feet to kick during their play.  Adults commentate on their own careful play and will give children the language they need to communicate their needs and ideas with others.

More able and older children are reminded to use their words as they negotiate, staff role model ways to negotiate, promoting the skills required for sharing and co-operating with others.

Anti-social behaviour, including bullying, hitting, biting, pushing, name calling or laughing at another child will always be challenged. Adults will support the child’s personal, social and emotional development by talking about and role modelling ways to manage feelings and show kindness to other children.  The adult will explain the behaviour that we expect to see, drawing attention to the upset caused to the other child.

Children who are the recipient of anti-social behaviour will be given lots of tender care and attention and given strategies to support them to cope in situations where they don’t like something that is happening to them, they will be encouraged to say…

• ‘No, I don’t want you to do that’
• and then to tell a grown up

We have a shared approach to persistent challenging behaviour.  We will work closely with the parents of the child to determine a strategy for dealing with the behaviour and to ensure that all adults are consistent in their approach.  The nursery manager will advise staff on specific methods to support individual children and seek further assistance from outside professionals where necessary.

A record is kept of all serious incidents.  In cases of repeated anti-social behaviour a record will be kept of the incidents and this will always be shared with the parents of the children involved.  Confidentiality and anonymity is always maintained where appropriate.  All information recorded remains confidential at the discretion of the nursery manager.

This policy was written with regard to the EYFS statutory standards and with support from the department for schools and families social and emotional aspects of development.

Policy reviewed and updated February 2018