The dolls at Barkantine Community Nursery in London wear hand-knitted dresses in the winter and light cotton clothes in the summer. Since the setting’s manager completed a new Cache-certified Level 3 diploma in holistic baby and child care, the dolls’ wardrobe has become one of many changes aimed at making the nursery more reflective of nature.
Manager Sajida Malik and two staff members gained the Early Years Educator-qualification in November 2016. Ms Malik wanted to take the 15-month course after attending a Steiner parent and child group.
The diploma combines approaches developed by Steiner Waldorf international pre-schools and paediatrician Emmi Pikler, contemporary child development and EYFS requirements. It was taught at Rudolf Steiner House and Emerson College. Students had to prepare more than 40 written assignments, do oral presentations, and complete a 100-hour placement at a Steiner setting.
‘If you interrupt children’s natural patterns of development, you can hinder them meeting their own milestones,’ says Ms Malik. She now believes development should not be rushed; for example, by trying to get children to sit up before they are ready. Practitioners have changed their behaviour, by being quieter and trying to create a calm atmosphere, at times replacing verbal communication by passing each other written notes. ‘We try not to do anything that interrupts a child’s play,’ says Ms Malik. ‘We’ve slowed down – we tread more quietly.’
Practitioners used to take the children to a soft play centre, but instead they have a daily walk around a local park or woods. They collect natural items along the way, such as conkers and pinecones, to turn into necklaces or toy fairies.
Implementing the course was challenging. ‘We’ve had to undo some of our learning,’ Ms Malik says, but as a result her staff have developed better observational skills and the children have become more immersed in their play. ‘They are calmer and we have fewer tears because the staff are tuning in children at a deeper level,’ she says.
Ms Malik says the course taught her to ‘work from the heart, not the mind… it has changed my way of working after 25 years’.
