Nursery World - Case study: well settled

Anita Mohindra is head of the New River Green Early Years Centre and Family Project in London. The team has thought in detail about how best to develop a positive relationship between staff and parents. Anita emphasises that a supportive and gentle settling-in process is crucial for starting that relationship with parents of very young children. Leaving the baby or toddler with a key worker in the centre is probably the first separation that parents have faced from their child. In planning a flexible pattern for settling both child and parent, the team has integrated Elinor Goldschmied's ideas into their existing practice.

Leaving the baby or toddler with a key worker in the centre is probably the first separation that parents have faced from their child. In planning a flexible pattern for settling both child and parent, the team has integrated Elinor Goldschmied's ideas into their existing practice.

The aim in New River Green is to consider the feelings of parents as much as those of the child. They are given opportunities for conversations with the key worker about the child, the usual routine and activities, everything that will matter. Parents can take their time in settling the child and in leaving a baby or toddler for longer amounts of time as the parents move out of the room but are still in the centre. The team suggest ways in which parents could help in the centre to ease that separation, and this kind of occupation also helps parents feel part of the centre for the future.

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