to their peers, but it does so without the encumbrance of time spent neatly cutting and framing. Again, time spent not on display but on considering next steps is time better spent.
Too often displays can become wallpaper
We, and the children, no longer notice it and it blends into the background. One way round this is to invest in some blackboard paint. A wall, a table-top, even large wooden blocks with a simple coat of such paint will give you the opportunity to change the text or pictures on display, sometimes if need be from day to day. Chalk is a great thing. By all means invest in colours and thicknesses if you must, but even straightforward white chalk will open up possibilities that a fixed, pre-printed and laminated display can never achieve.
And the best thing about such a display? It’s interactive. Children can add or take away their own interpretations, they can engage and invest in the display – they become part of the fabric of your building. Chalkboard paint at various heights also has the added benefit of contributing to their gross motor development as they pivot using shoulder, elbow or wrist to interact. Chalk is also great on the carpet or floor tiles if you have a patient and understanding cleaning staff. Arrows, key words, footprints, trails, numbers can all be quickly drawn and written, and easily added to or removed.
Such displays create engagement; they can help each day become something new and exciting. Above all, such displays enable you to meet individual children’s next steps by allowing you to leave messages for them that directly meet their development in reading, and you can do this on a daily basis quickly and easily. Children very quickly get in to the idea that they can leave messages for one another too – suddenly your display becomes playful and truly purposeful.
Not only does this approach to display have a positive impact on children by immersing them in an environment that is neutral and purposeful, it will also have a significant impact on your time. We never seem to have time. Free time seems to come as a blink-of-an-eye gift that no sooner arrives than it is gone again. Weekends no doubt will contain an element of preparation for the week ahead – that is the teacher’s burden that mustn’t be forgotten when non-teaching friends crow about our long holidays. Less time spent on immaculate displays and being a laminator slave will free up time for other, more meaningful things. One of those things could be to relax and enjoy some me-time. Maybe in among the chalkboard notes and messages for your children you could leave one for yourself that might simply act as a reminder that there is a life beyond the classroom.
Freedom – George Michael
We’ve already touched upon the idea of freedom within the Early Years space and we’ll pick up on this thread later too, but it’s worth pausing for a moment to consider two key components to your practice that will ensure that this freedom which children deserve doesn’t end up in a free-for-all bun fight.
Children naturally test boundaries
That’s a natural part of development. They push against the adult so that the adult can show them the patience, love and discipline that they need. Without clear boundaries you open yourself to carnage. Yes, children need freedom to choose and investigate, but they need to do that within the confines of a system that enables this but at the same time also reminds them that you are the master of their universe. They are on your turf.
Your first half term is the perfect time to ensure that this happens. It doesn’t rely on you telling them the rules and then you giving time out left, right and centre until they ‘get’ it. Really, you want this to be a collaborative approach where you explain and negotiate with the children a simple charter or rule set that you all agree to follow with clear justifications for each point. You might choose to do this as a whole-class exercise or a small group one, but ultimately you want children to be active participants in setting the ground rules for the year ahead. Why should they walk inside? Is it right to dump your coat on the floor? Why should you wash your hands before eating a snack? What should they do with resources that they have got out and no longer need and why? Having these basic chats with children puts them in a position of control (with a little steering if necessary) and it also explains to them the rationale behind the universe in which they will spend the next year of their lives. Collaboration and cohesion should be at the heart of this process. It’s a fantastic Communication and Language opportunity, too. You may also choose to put up a simple display since this is, after all, a purposeful element of your day-to-day routine. You may choose not to do this, but use verbal reminders based on individual children. Only put up the display because your heart tells you to.
Of course, children are children and you will inevitably find yourself engaged in discussions about boundaries across the year, but ultimately you are looking for the children to have a concept of teamwork and togetherness, of safety and of consequence if the boundaries are crossed. Again, children look to you as the adult to ensure that this happens. They want you to be approachable and loving, but at the same time you will also need to let them know that your agreed boundaries are there for all and that the consequence is equal to all.
There is a slight caveat to that, however. Some children will find boundaries incredibly hard for many, many reasons. It’s a case of making ‘reasonable adjustments’ here: of picking battles, of making sure that you can bend slightly if you feel that the individual child will benefit from a slight tweak. Sometimes it can be appropriate to explain to the other children why you are doing this – you will need to think carefully about how to present this to them, however, as children can be prone to over-sharing at home (although most children just say ‘nothing’ to the question ‘What did you do at school today?’). Patience is key in all of this. It’s about making sure you try to think ahead and unpick triggers for behaviour too. This is where the children need you to be the adult – you are their ‘thinking brain’ at times, but in order to be this kind of brain, you need to think like a child too. Are my carpet times noisy and lacking in focus from the children? Does the walk to the dinner hall often involve lots of noise and running? Are resources not being used with care and a sense of responsibility? If so, then it’s time to unpick what is happening. Are you in the right place in the line? Are your carpet times engaging and pacy? Have you considered what the children might be telling you through their behaviour?
When I was training to be a teacher in Cheltenham, I had the good fortune to come under the influence of the course leader, Colin Forster. He is an incredibly inspiring man who on the first day went through the whole lecture hall of around 100 students and named every single one of them. How he did it I don’t know, but from that moment I was hooked. On around the fourth week of the course we gathered in the lecture hall to hear his thoughts on Behaviour Management. In walked Colin who stood at the lectern, welcomed everybody and then said, ‘It’s quite simple. Make everything you do with children interesting to them’, and with that he walked out. And that was it. It has stayed with me ten years on because he was right.
Engagement is absolutely vital not only to behaviour but also to learning
Having said that, we know that within a school day it is not always as easy to do as to say, so let’s consider the second key component to the children’s universe if we are going to allow them the necessary freedom that they deserve and thrive in.
‘Some day soon I will forget this junkyard/Take you with me if you’re going that way/It’s a changing world and I can tell you one thing/Time is wasting, shadows waiting/Love will slip away’ – Julie Profumo, Cleaners From Venus
We all live for reward in some way. We’re conditioned to it. We work for a wage. We love to receive love. This reward can sometimes be one we’re not always aware of and it can also be tangible like money as well as abstract like happiness or being teenage-ingly in endorphin-driven love.
Children
