Behaviour Management Policy.

Statement of intent

Sticky Mits believes that children flourish best when their personal, social and emotional needs are met and where there are clear developmentally appropriate expectations for their behaviour.

Aim

We aim to teach children to behave in socially acceptable ways and to understand that needs and rights of others. The principles and guiding management of behaviour exist within the programme for supporting personal, social and emotional development.

Methods

We have a named person who has overall responsibility for our programme for supporting personal, social and emotional development, including issues concerning behaviour.

• We have a named person who has overall responsibility for issues concerning behaviour
• We require this person to:
  • Keep her/himself to keep up to date with legislation, research and thinking on promoting positive behavior and on handling children's behaviour where it may be require additional support;
  • Access relevant sources of expertise on promoting positive behaviour within the programme for supporting personal, social and emotional development;
  • Check that all staff have relevant in-service training on promoting positive behaviour. We keep a record of staff attending at this training.
• We recognize that codes for interacting with other people vary between cultures and require staff to be aware of, and respect, those used by members of the setting.
• We require all staff, volunteers and students to provide a positive model of behaviour by treating children, parents and one another with friendliness, care and courtesy.
• We familiarise new staff and volunteers with the settings behaviour policy and its guidelines for behavior.
• We expect all members of our setting –children, parents, staff, volunteers and students- to keep to the guidlines, requiring these to be applied consistently.
• We work in partnership with children's parents. Parents are regularly informed about their children's behavior by the key person. We work with parents to address recurring inconsiderate behaviour, using our observation record to help us understand the cause and to jointly decide how to respond appropriately.

Strategies with children who engage in inconsistent behaviour

• We require all staff, volunteers and students to use positive strategies for handling inconsiderate behaviour, by helping children find solutions in ways which are appropriate for the children's ages and stages of development.
• We acknowledge considerate behaviour such as kindness and willingness to share.
• We support each child in developing self esteem, confidence and feelings of competence we support each child in developing a sense of belonging in our group, so that they feel valued and welcome.
• When children behave in inconsiderate ways, we help them to understand the outcomes of their actions and support them in learning how to cope more appropriately.
• We never send a child out of the room on their own.
• We never use physical punishment such as smacking or shaking. Children are never threatened with these.
• We do not use techniques intended to single out and humiliate individual children.
• We use physical restraint, such as holding, only to prevent physical injury to children adults and or serious damage to property
• Details of such an event (what happened, what action was taken and by whom, and the name of witnesses) are brought to the attention of the manager and are recorded in the child's personal file. The child's parent is informed on the same day.
• We do not shout or raise our voices in a threatening way to respond to children's inconsiderate behaviour.

Children under three years

• When children under three behave in inconsistent ways we recognize that strategies for them will need to be developmentally appropriate and differ from those of older children.
• Common inconsiderate or hurtful behaviour of young children include tantrums, biting or fighting. Staff are calm and patient, offering comfort to intense emotions, helping children to manage their feelings and to talk about them to help them resolve issues and promote understanding.

Rough and tumble play and fantasy aggression.

Young children often engage in play that has aggressive themes-such as superhero and weapon play, some children appear pre-occupied with these themes, but their behaviour is not necessarily a precursor to hurtful behaviour or bullying, although it maybe inconsiderate at times and may need addressing using strategies as above.

• We recognize that teasing and rough and tumble play are normal for young children and acceptable within limits. We regard theses kinds of play as pro-social and not as problematical `aggressive`.
• We will develop strategies to contain play that are agreed with the children, and understood by them, with acceptable boundaries to ensure children are not hurt.
• We are able to tune into the content of the play, perhaps to suggest alternative strategies for heroes and heroines, making he most of `teacherable moments` to encourage empathy and lateral thinking to explore alternative scenarios and strategies for conflict resolution.
• We discourage children from playing with guns.

Hurtful behaviour

We take hurtful behaviour very seriously. Most children under the age of five will at some stage hurt or say something hurtful to another child, especially if emotions are high at the time, but it is not helpful to label this behaviour as `bulling`. For children under five, hurtful behaviour is momentary, spontaneous and often without cognizance of the feelings of the person whom they have hurt.

• We recognize that young children behave in hurtful ways towards others because they have not yet developed the means to manage intense feelings that sometimes overwhelm them.
• We will help them manage these feelings as they have neither the biological means nor the cognitive means to do this for themselves.
• We understand that self management of intense emotions, especially anger, happens when the brain has developed neurological systems to manage the physiological processes that take place when triggers activate responses of anger of fear.
• We don't engage in punitive responses to a young child's rage as this will have the opposite effect.
• Our way of dealing with pre-verbal children is to calm them down through holding and cuddling. Verbal children will also respond to cuddling to calm them down, but we offer them explanation and discuss the incident with them to their level of understanding.
• We recognize that young children require help in understanding the range of feelings experienced. We help children recognize their feelings by naming them and helping children express them, making connections verbally between the event and the feeling.
• We help young children develop pro-social behaviour, such as resolving conflict over who has a toy.
• We are aware that the same problem may happen over and over before skills such as sharing and turn-taking develop. Children will need repeated experiences with problem solving, supported by patient adults and clear boundaries.
• We support social skills through modeling behaviour, through activated, drama and stories. We build self esteem and confidence in children, recognizing their emotional needs through close and committed relationships with them.
• We help a child to understand the effect that their hurtful behaviour has had on anther child, we encourage the child to say sorry.
• When hurtful behaviour becomes problematic, we work with the parents to identify the cause and find a solution together. The main reason for very young children to engage in excessive hurtful behavior are that;
  • They do not feel securely attached to someone who can interpret and meet their needs- this maybe at home or in the setting.
  • Their parent, or carer in the setting, does not have skills in responding appropriately, and consequently negative patterns are developing where hurtful behaviour is the only response the child has to express feelings of anger.
  • The child is exposed to levels of aggressive behaviour at home and maybe at risk emotionally, or may be experiencing child abuse.
  • The child had a developing condition that effects how they behave.
  • Where this does not work, we use Codes of Practice to support the child and family, making appropriate referrals to a Behaviour Support Team where necessary.