Nursery World - Opinion: To the Point

Young children will control themselves, says Julian Grenier.

Not long ago, I was part of a discussion with the nursery team aboutwhether there was any reason to maintain our 'no running inside' rule.Some of the team had recently been involved in training run by Jabadao,the National Centre for Movement, Learning and Health. They had beenwatching how children moved at nursery, and had noticed that nearly allof them took care not to bump into each other or the furniture. Wherechildren did bump into each other, or the walls, it was almost alwaysbecause they intended to, not because they were uncontrolled. I wasaware that only moments earlier I had asked a toddler to do 'nicewalking' as she grabbed her coat and ran to the garden door. I startedto wonder whether you can feel your life in every limb, aged two, bydoing something called 'nice walking'.

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