Introduction Early childhood is a period of rapid learning and development. The quality of a child’s learning environment has a profound impact on that child’s life opportunities and outcomes. The Children’s Services Act 1996 (the Act) and the Children’s Services Regulations 2009 (the Regulations) specify the minimum standards children’s services must meet in their day-to-day operation. These standards work together to: protect the children enrolled in services ensure the children’s health, safety and wellbeing promote consistency in the standard of service delivery raise community and parent confidence in children’s services. The Act contains important standards that relate to: protection of children from hazards and harm (section 26) educational or recreational programs available for children (section 26B) adequate supervision of children (section 27) discipline of children (section 28) maintenance of premises (section 29) child/staff ratios (section 29A). The Regulations describe the requirements for: records (part 3) provision and display of information (part 4) staffing (part 5)
(part 7) complaints (part 8). The educational or recreational program you provide for the children in your care makes an important contribution to laying the foundation for later success at school and throughout life. You are responsible for providing each child in your care with an educational or recreational program that: is based on the child’s developmental needs, interests and experiences is designed to take into account each child’s individual differences enhances their development. A program for children (sometimes called a curriculum) refers not only to planned learning experiences provided for children but to all experiences, both planned and unplanned, that children have throughout the day. A Children’s services licence is granted subject to the condition that the children’s service is operated in a way that ensures the safety of the children being cared for or educated and that the developmental needs of children are met. Delivering a program in a limited hours service 3
Recording the program This section explains the recorded or written information required for making decisions about the program. Recorded information is sometimes called documentation. Documenting (or writing down) the program and the actual program decision making process are two different things, although related. Recorded information, including your program, contributes to offering a good experience to all children and is essential. In addition to the program, this information can include: the vision statement notes about the program and children’s experiences (either individual children or groups of children) information about individual children – their development and learning, interests, achievements, experiences in the service and in the family, concerns or questions evidence of children’s play, work and learning (photographs of children at work and play, records of children’s comments and conversations, paintings, drawings and other created products) thoughts and reflections about any aspect of the program or a child or several children’s behaviour. While educators do most of the documenting; children and families can and should contribute. In other words, the program should reflect everyone’s contributions and ideas. Recording information is important for a number of reasons. It helps you: remember things you might otherwise forget make sure the operational program, what happens on a basis links to the vision statement get to know children better, learn about their individual differences, development, interests and needs share information with families and children and invite their input talk with other educators be accountable to sponsors and management provide experiences that cater for children’s interests demonstrate that your program is intentional and purposeful. All documentation or recorded information needs to help you get to know children better and feed directly into the decisions about the program. One of the important things to ask yourself continually is ‘how is this information reflected in the program decisions that we make and provide for children every day?’ What kinds of documentation do you do now? How does it link to what you plan and provide for children every day? Are there additional kinds of documentation or changes to current documentation that would contribute to a better program? What is in the Act and Regulations about program planning? The Regulations require that children’s services have an outline of the educational or recreational program displayed at the service and that the educational or recreational program be available at the service (Regulations 40 and 41).
Decision making about the program...continued Conclusion The formal program that you make public and display for families and older children will most likely form the basis of a more detailed working or operational program that you and your colleagues use on a day-to- day basis. Displaying a program for families and children gives a powerful message to them about their ‘place’ in the program, it tells them that you see them as important partners in the child’s experience. Think about what they will want to know, and document the information so that it’s easy to understand and gives them a picture of what will happen. How do you plan currently? How do you ensure that there is a link between other documentation and the plan? Are there some ideas in this section that you can incorporate into your planning process and ways of documenting the plan? All the parts of a program fit together to contribute to a good limited hours service. What matters most is that there is evidence in the program that: in ‘worthwhile’ ways there are diverse opportunities that cater for all areas of learning and development children make choices and contribute to decisions there is a balance of child and educator-initiated experiences interactions and relationships between children and educators are warm, inclusive and respectful children are encouraged and helped to interact positively with other children the environment is rich and organised to encourage children’s engagement the environment and experiences reflect children’s interests, as well as their families, cultures and communities all families are welcomed educators communicate with families, seeking their ideas Families want their children to be safe, secure and happy in care. Supervising children at all times and staying aware of what is happening is essential. Learning about children and what they need and enjoy; being enthusiastic and committed; really paying attention to what’s going on; and reflecting to make improvements will mean that a limited hours service will do much more than keep children safe, secure and happy. 22 Delivering a program in a limited hours service 23