Supporting Children’s Behaviour Policy

We will do this by:

• Creating a warm and welcoming environment where children are able to safely express all emotions.

• Create a 'yes' environment where children can safely explore without lots of obstacles or restrictions.

• Create clear, consistent and fair expectations and boundaries that all children are aware of. We will continually model positive behaviours myself as children learn from those around them

• Keep a structured routine which is displayed with a visual timetable.

• Assist children's transitions by giving time scales with visuals, 5 minutes and 1 minute before an activity finishes.

• Create a safe calm area that children can access if they are feeling overwhelmed.

• Build a foundation of trust with the children and parents.

• Encourage parents to communicate any reasons why a child’s behaviour may differ, such as bad night sleep.

• Always look for positive behaviour and give specific praise for that behaviour.

• Listen to the children and respond as appropriate.

• Become familiar with each individual child and understand their likes, dislikes and triggers.

• Teach children about the range of emotions they may feel and strategies to cope with those emotions.

• Model these emotions, e.g. “I’m feeling a little bit sad today, so I’m going to sit down in the cosy corner and read a book. Would you like to read it with me?

• Constantly support children with co-regulation and developing their self-regulation skills.

• It is completely normal for young children to experience big feelings and we do not aim to stop those feelings. If/ when your child experiences big feelings we will:

• Name the emotion - "you are feeling sad that you can't ...".

• Acknowledge the emotion - "it's ok to feel sad, we all feel sad sometimes"

• Enforce the boundary "it's not ok to throw toys, so i'm going to move this toy away".

• Offer a solution/ strategy - "if you want to keep throwing, you can throw the ball or the bean bags. Or would you like to sit in our cosy corner and read a book together?"

• Follow up - when the child has calmed down, we will chat to them about how they were feeling and what they can do when they're feeling sad next time.

For children in their early years there are different reasons that cause children to behave in different ways. We will endeavour to keep to routines so that your child feels safe and is not overtired or hungry. We have behaviour expectations within my setting, which we use to help even the youngest of children understand what is and what is not acceptable behaviour.

We will always work with you so that we can support a child’s behaviour together. If we have any concerns, we will let you know by either making a relevant observation on the tiney app or by ringing you later after collection. Children can become upset if the incident is retold in front of them, so we will endeavour not to do this. We will also inform you of how the matter was dealt with.

If you have any concerns regarding the supporting of your child’s behaviour, please do not hesitate to contact us. Working together to support your child in order not to confuse them is really important.