WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE THIS ROLE?
I took semi-retirement in 2015 and went back to the classroom, heading up a nursery in a primary school in Suffolk. I’ve spent time researching the impact of professional networks and practitioner induction, and more recently was a member of the EY team at Doncaster University. My special interest is international perspectives of early childhood.
THE REVISED EYFS AND OFSTED HAVE PUT AN EMPHASIS ON SETTINGS DESIGNING THEIR OWN CURRICULA. IS THIS WHY BRIGHT HORIZONS DEVELOPED ITS NEW CURRICULUM?
For a long time, I’ve felt the EYFS didn’t put enough emphasis on children’s emotional well-being, as the framework has evolved. The idea was really to give practitioners the ‘permission’ to go beyond the seven areas of learning in the EYFS and to help them to understand that children don’t learn in boxes and that all learning is interconnected. I have wanted for a long time to give children ‘more’ than the traditional skills covered in the EYFS, because I believe that children will really need to know how to manage their own emotional health as they grow older.
Like everything else, starting early with developing these skills is important. That’s why we have areas in the curriculum such as mindfulness, self-regulation (in the broader sense) and gardening. These are all things that can help children to achieve ‘self-fulfilment’ in their lives.
HOW DID YOU DESIGN YOUR CURRICULUM?
Our curriculum is not just my vision, it’s the vision created through discussion and collaboration with early childhood experts in Bright Horizons, who have more than 100 years of combined theoretical and practical knowledge in child development.
Through ongoing learning and knowledge sharing among our different teams and creating a Knowledge Community, we continue to deepen our understanding of the challenges and the opportunities in early years development. Our approach is very much about collaboration to be sure that we do all we can to enable children to flourish and promote their overall well-being.
I see myself as the custodian of our pedagogical practice – I’ve worked closely with colleagues to stretch my own thinking and help me to fine tune my ideas. Then with the help of Ann Stubbs, our early childhood area director for curriculum, we have discussed and considered a number of different pedagogical approaches, before engaging with colleagues in nurseries to test our thinking and trial the curriculum.
We’ve built on the pedagogical pillars already in place at Bright Horizons, which have been developed over time with practitioners; building on the HEART principles, which our organisation’s culture is based on (Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, Teamwork). We pulled all this together and developed the HEARTS principles for children’s well-being: Physical Health; Emotional Wellbeing; Strong Attachments and Relationships with others; excellent Teaching and Staying Safe.
The curriculum is what we want children to learn; the HEARTS principles for well-being are how we want children to learn, and encompass the welfare requirements in the EYFS, the Characteristics of Effective Learning and more.
CAN YOU SUM UP BRIGHT HORIZONS’ EDUCATIONAL ETHOS?
Our philosophy is simple: children are at the centre of all we do.
We acknowledge that many theorists and educational philosophers influence the work we do with children and their families, and that ‘quality’ means different things to different people. Our whole philosophy is about being aware of the important nature of what we do and how we support our colleagues and the children we work with. We have developed our Philosophy and Guiding Principles through in-depth discussions at our Knowledge Community meetings, where early childhood specialists engage with theory and research on a regular basis, to ensure that the team is aligned in our practice and thinking around early childhood and our role in supporting families.
Our guiding principles relate to our view of the child in our society, and in our nurseries; how we use research and theory to guide our thinking; and the role of the adult and how we view ourselves as teachers. We believe these are all key areas for us to consider if we are to be mindful about what we do and how we go about our important job as educators and pedagogical leaders.
WHAT IS BRIGHT HORIZONS’ EXPERIENCE OF THE GROWING GAPS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING, AND THE IMPACT ON WELL-BEING DUE TO THE PANDEMIC?
It is our experience that children are, on the whole, continuing to make good progress. It’s not easy for parents, who may have been juggling home-schooling of older siblings and work. We were reassured that changes to the practical set-up of nurseries – for example, parents having to leave children at the nursery door – have been understood by parents and quickly adapted to by children. Early in the pandemic, we shared guidance with parents around how to mitigate the anxiety of separation, using Bowlby and Ainsworth’s theories around attachment and giving children ‘positive cues’. For example, smiling and being enthusiastic as they hand the children over to the trusted key person, rather than hesitating and passing on their own worries about whether their child would be upset. Working in partnership and anticipating areas of concern have been very effective, and children have left parents more easily than we ever would have imagined.
We’ve also continued to deliver the essential activities that are common in early childhood settings, such as water play, sensory play, etc. We’ve carried out rigorous risk assessments to ensure we reduce the risks of cross-contamination, and our regular cleaning and strict procedures mean we have been able to continue to provide a broad range of exciting and motivating activities that support active learning for the children.
