Starting nursery is a difficult time for any child but all the more problematic at my nursery set within a college of further education. With many parents arriving at the start of term, the usual settling-in procedures of home visits and staggered entries are impossible. To ease the transition to nursery, I have devised an electronic 'welcome' pack, which has benefited all our children and brought new insights into our practice.
The pack, comprising mainly of photographs, is emailed to families in July, giving them the summer to share the information and so start to familiarise themselves with the nursery ahead of the start of term.
For the benefit of our existing children, I decided to combine making the pack with an exercise in 'listening to children', as described by Clark and Moss (2001) in The Mosaic Approach. This involved giving the children opportunities to photograph places, people and things of importance to them around the nursery.
As I intended to include some of the photographs in the pack, I started by gaining parental permission. The permission slips allowed for parents to consent to their children being involved in taking the photographs but not in appearing in the pack. In the event, I received permission for ten children, aged from birth to four, to appear in the pack - just under half the children attending our nursery.
The purpose of some of the pictures was also made clear to the twoto four-year-olds photographers, who were allowed to opt out or stop at any time. Professor Anne Smith (2011) outlines the ethical dilemmas researchers face when working with children, and the need to be sensitive when the child has had enough.
FAVOURITE THINGS
As the children took their photographs, I needed to be close enough to hear their comments and views, without being intrusive or influencing their choices.
It was no surprise to see the children taking pictures of their friends, toys and key workers, but their choice of 'places' to photograph was more unexpected. These included the toilet ('It has a red seat'), the space under the slide and a wooden log behind a tree — often hidden from adult view.
When I had gathered together the children's photographs, I copied and annotated some for inclusion in the children's learning journeys. Not all the children's photographs could appear in the pack.
I supplemented the children's photographs with my own to give a clearer overview of the nursery and the activities available. When I had finished putting the slides together I showed the children, who pointed at their friends or laughed when they recognised themselves.
Before sending the final product to new families, I sought the opinions of colleagues within the college. The immediate snag was that the file size was too large to send as an attachment, but I overcame the problem with the use of file-sharing websites like Dropbox or Skydrive. The pack was generally well received and a new member of staff has since enquired about a nursery place for her child.
CLEARER PICTURE
As an exercise in listening to children, I believe this has been successful. The children have been given the freedom to talk about things that interest them and communicated their pleasure in spaces that are not immediately visible to adults. In response, I am considering how to add more similar spaces - temporary spaces such as tents or permanent additions such as a row of bushes to hide behind
Colleagues have been interested to see how their key children reacted with a camera and were able to suggest why a child chose a particular area to photograph. I plan to repeat the exercise, but asking key workers to lead the activity with their children.
Evaluating the efficacy of the pack in easing transition will be less straightforward. After all, we will never know how well the children might have settled without it. However, I will use parental feedback and compare my own observations of children as they access activities and engage in group times during their early days in nursery. On the basis of these assessments, I will be able to adapt my pack and settling-in processes further.
Alison Anderson is an EYP, manager of Little Peaches at St John's College, Nottingham and studying for an MA in Education (Early Years) at the University of Derby
REFERENCES
Listening to Young Children: The Mosaic Approach by A Clark and P Moss (2001), London, National Children's Bureau for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
'Respecting children's rights and agency' by A Smith (2011) in Researching Young Children's Perspectives by D Harcourt, B Perry and T Waller (2011), Abingdon, Routledge
