Hopscotch believes children flourish best when they feel safe and secure and have their needs met by supportive practitioners who act as good role models, show them respect and value their individual personalities. Children are supported through co-regulation, where adults and children work together towards a common purpose, including finding ways to resolve upsets from stress in any domain and return to balance leading onto a path to self-regulation. The holiday club actively promotes Values and encourages and praises positive, caring and polite behaviour at all times and provides an environment where children learn to respect themselves, other people and their surroundings.
To support positive behaviour in our setting, we aim to:
- Recognise the individuality of all our children
- Provide a warm, responsive relationship where children feel respected, comforted and supported in times of stress, and confident that they are cared for at all times.
- Encourage self-regulation, consideration for each other, our surroundings and property
- Encourage children to participate in a wide range of group activities to enable them to develop their social skills
- Ensure that all staff act as positive role models for children
- Encourage parents, carers and other visitors to be positive role models
- Work in partnership with parents/carers by communicating openly
- Praise children and acknowledge their positive actions and attitudes, therefore ensuring that children see that we value and respect them
- Encourage all staff working with children to accept their responsibility for implementing the goals in this policy and to be consistent
- Promote non-violence and encourage children to deal with conflict peacefully
- Supporting and developing children's understanding of different feelings and emotions, self-regulation and empathy as appropriate to stage of development. This includes using strategies and naming and talking about feelings and ways to manage them
- Have a named person who has overall responsibility for promoting positive behaviour and behaviour support.
Our holiday club rules are concerned with safety, care and respect for each other. We keep the rules to a minimum and ensure that these are age and stage appropriate. We try to involve children in the process of setting rules to encourage cooperation and participation and ensure children gain understanding of the expectations of behaviour relevant to them as a unique child.
Children who are displaying distressed/challenging behaviour, for example, by physically abusing another child or adult e.g. hitting, or through verbal bullying, are helped to talk through their feelings and actions through co-regulation before thinking about the situation and apologise where appropriate. We make sure that the child who has been upset is comforted. We always acknowledge when a child is feeling angry or upset and that it is the behaviour that is not acceptable, not the child or their feelings.
We promote positive behaviour at Hopscotch by:
- Supporting all children to develop positive behaviour, and we make every effort to provide for their individual needs
- Only using physical intervention (where practitioners may use reasonable force to prevent children from injuring themselves or others or damaging property) or to manage a child's behaviour if absolutely necessary. We keep a record of any occasions where physical intervention is used and inform parents on the same day, or as reasonably practicable
- Recognising there may be occasions where a child is displaying challenging or distressed behaviour and may need individual techniques to restrain them to prevent a child from injuring themselves or others. This will only be carried out by staff who have been appropriately trained to do so. Any restraints will only be done following recommended guidance and training and only with a signed agreement from parents on when to use it. We will complete an incident form following any restraints used and notify the parents.
- Never singling out children or humiliating them in any way. Where children are displaying challenging behaviour, they will, wherever possible, be distracted and re-directed to alternative activities. Discussions with children will take place as to why
- their behaviour was not acceptable, respecting their level of understanding and maturity
- Never raising voices (other than to keep children safe)
- In any case of challenging behaviour, we always make it clear to the child or children in question, that it is the behaviour and not the child that is unwelcome
- Deciding on particular strategies to support particular types of behaviour depending on the child's age, level of development and the circumstances surrounding the behaviour. This may involve asking the child to talk and think about what he/she has done. All staff support children in developing empathy and children will only be asked to apologise if they have developed strong empathy skills and have a good understanding of why saying sorry is appropriate
- Helping staff to reflect on their own responses towards behaviours that challenge to ensure that their reactions are appropriate
- We inform parents/carers if their child's behaviour is unkind to others or if their child has been upset. In all cases we deal with behaviour that challenges in the holiday club at the time. We may ask parents/carers to meet with staff to discuss their child's behaviour, so that if there are any difficulties, we can work together to ensure consistency between their home and the holiday club. In some cases, we may request additional advice and support from other professionals, such as an educational psychologist.
- We support children in developing non-aggressive strategies to enable them to express their feelings and emotions
- We keep confidential records on any behaviour that challenges that has taken place We inform parents and ask them to read and sign any incidents concerning their child
At our holiday club staff follow the procedure below to enable them to deal with behaviour that challenges:
- Staff are encouraged to ensure that all children feel safe, happy and secure
- Staff are encouraged to recognise that active physical aggression in children can be part of their development, and this should be challenged in a positive way
- Children are helped to understand that using aggression to get things, is inappropriate and they will be encouraged to resolve problems in other ways
- Staff will initiate games and activities with children when they feel play has become overly boisterous or aggressive, both indoors or outdoors
- If any parent has a concern about their child, a member of staff will be available to discuss those concerns. Working together can ensure our children feel confident and secure in their environment, both at home and in the nursery
- All concerns will be treated in the strictest confidence.
We encourage children to recognise that bullying, fighting, hurting and discriminatory comments are not acceptable behaviour. We want children to recognise that certain actions are right and that others are wrong. Bullying takes many forms. It can be physical, verbal or emotional, but it is always a repeated behaviour that makes other people feel uncomfortable or threatened. We acknowledge that any form of bullying is unacceptable and will be dealt with immediately. Staff will intervene when they think a child is being bullied, however mild or harmless it may seem and sensitively discuss any instance of bullying with the parents/carers of all involved to look for a consistent resolution to the behaviour.
By promoting positive behaviour, valuing co-operation and a caring attitude, we hope to ensure that children will develop a positive sense of self, have confidence in their own abilities, make good friendships, co-operate and resolve conflicts peaceably. These will provide them with a secure platform for school and later life.
- We understand that children may use certain behaviours, such as Sometimes, children show how they feel through actions like hitting, pushing, or biting. This might happen when it's hard to find the right words. Sometimes physical behaviours such as hitting, pushing or biting can be due to a special educational need and/or a disability. The holiday club uses the following strategies to help physical behaviours:
- Small group times so that each child is receiving positive attention
- Quiet/cosy areas for children who are feeling overwhelmed to go to
- Stories and discussions about emotions and feelings including activities and stories that help support children to recognise feelings and empathise with characters and events
- Vigilant staff that know the children well and are able to identify where children need more stimulation or quiet times
- Adequate resources are provided and, where possible, more than one resource or toy is sought to minimise conflicts.