Allowing children's voices to be heard - Burnbrae Children's Centre
Staff at Burnbrae Children's Centre found our more about children's interests and ideas when they involved them in the planning process.
Burnbrae Children’s Centre caters for children aged 3 to 5 years. Staff plan on a monthly basis and have weekly meetings to exchange information about children, their likes/dislikes, interests, abilities and particular needs.
Although these meetings are valuable, staff felt that it was difficult to recognise what individual children were really interested in and what they liked to do while at nursery. Managers discussed ways in which children could contribute to the planning process.
A meeting of the whole staff team was arranged to present the idea of implementing children’s planning. Staff were shown examples of the work from another nursery. They discussed what benefits it could bring to the planning, to the whole curriculum and how it could enable the children’s ‘voices to be heard’.
They discussed when it could be timetabled it into the routine and what resources would be required. Parents were introduced to children’s planning through the nursery newsletter and a poster was put up on the centre’s planning wall. Large artist’s sketch books were used to record the planning and these were displayed on the planning wall for children, staff and parents to view and refer to at any time.
