management in early years

1. Setting the standards for the learning, development and care, ensuring that every child makes progress and that no child gets left behind. Parents, providers should deliver individualised learning, development and care that enhances the development of the children in their care and gives those children the best possible start in life. Every child should be supported individually to make progress at their own pace and children who need extra support to fulfil their potential should receive special consideration. All providers have an equally important role to play in children’s early years experiences and they have to ensure that the provision they deliver is both appropriate to children’ needs and complementary to the education and care provided in child’s other settings.

It is very important to recognise that parents and practitioners have different kinds of relationships with the children in their care. Practitioners need to develop consistent, warm and affectionate relationships with children especially babies but they should not seek to replace the parents. Babies need to be with the same people each and every day to develop social relationships. This is why the EYFS requires all early years settings and schools to implement a key person system. Parents and practitioners have one thing in common that is very important: they all want the best for the child. The roles involved are not the same yet they are complementary. Parents know their own child best. Practitioners have knowledge of general child development.

The Essential Conversation: what parents and teachers can learn from each other, written by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, focuses in on the “essential” discussion that occurs between parents and teachers when it comes to a child’s education and life while looking further into the hidden meanings behind this exchange. Lawrence-Lightfoot describes how often times the dialogue that occurs between parents and teachers has hidden undertones such as anxiety along with parental ghosts from the past along with several other trajectories that may impact how effectiveness of parent and teacher discussion/collaboration. The theme of Lawrence-Lightfoot’s book can best be summed up in a quote she shared about parent-teacher conferences; “Beneath the polite surface

By following good practise I proved appropriate care, and I fi didn’t individuals would suffer. Communication is very important when working with young children as they need to be able to understand simple instructions and want to be able to listen and communicate back to you. Communication does not involve just speaking but also listening,

‘Early years practitioners have a key role to play in working with parents to support their young children. This should include identifying learning needs and responding quickly to any difficulties. Wherever appropriate, practitioners should work together with professionals from other

centred approach: the wishes and feelings of children must be identified and taken account of; child at the centre of the process by involving the child or young person in meetings, asking for their opinion when discussing matters relating to them; importance of respecting children and young people

Practitioners work in partnership with parent’s families, as they are the child’s first and most enduring carers and educators

As an early year practitioner, it is very important to support the child development and confidence, help them learn about how to manage their feelings and behaviour and making relationship with others.

(Miller, 2003 & Roffey, 2002 as cited by Porter, 2008). There are different strategies teachers can use to maintain effective communication with parents and build strong relationships once they have made communication. Keeping a parents trust is important in maintaining open lines of communication so they can discuss concerns relating to the child and solve issues promptly. Teachers can gain parents confidence by always respecting confidentiality and avoiding rumours. If a parent finds out that their child’s teacher breached confidentiality or is a known gossip, parents will find it difficult to confide in them with an issue regarding their child, particularly if it is of a personal nature. Parents are also more likely to approach their child’s teacher if they know they can discuss issues and reach a mutual agreement (Bender, 2005). Teacher-parent communication is all about showing trust and comfort with each other. Frequent communication between these two parties creates less tension, when an issue arises, allowing a constructive discussion to take place and reaching an agreement sooner without hostility.

During the placement I was able to spend time observing interactions between parents, children and staff. I witnessed many positive aspects in the schools approach to engaging parents and was particularly impressed by their open door policy for parents and the support provided to families in times of need by the learning mentors. As part of the admission process to the school, staff visit the parents and child at home and discuss the implementation of the home-school agreement (appendix 1.b). This agreement sets out the expectations of each of the parent, school and child in regard to their actions and attitude towards their time in school. This is often one of the first interactions teacher and parents have and Grayson (2011) suggests most teachers report these home visits to have a lasting positive effect on the child and parent-teacher relationship. During the school’s inspection in 2014 Ofsted identified relationships across the school and with parents as a key strength.

Discuss the role of the early years practitioner in planning provision to meet the needs of the child.

Regarding parents, they are the customer and this entails all care towards their child may need to be explained to them. E.g. what is the Early Years Foundation Stage? Parent evenings help me to improve knowledge of the child’s home life and personal care needs, as well as building bonds with parents so they feel they can further their trust in myself and my team. I also update the children’s learning

“Understanding leadership in early childhood has been plagued by its confusion with the concept of management” (Rodd, 2013, p. 19). The quotation highlights the overlapping of different roles of leadership and management. It is true in respect that people misunderstand the true nature, roles and responsibilities of both the roles because the educational leaders play the role of manager in early childhood setting and the managers perform the duties of educational leader. The following essay will discuss the role of the leaders, which is different from the managers in early childhood settings. There will be discussion on the different skills and dispositions required to perform the role of a leader and a manager. There are different models and theories, which influence the way of working of the leaders and managers. First, the essay will explain the Collin’s level five leadership model; and Katz’s four development stages model followed by the Formal, Collegial and Cultural models of educational management in early childhood setting. Finally, the essay will compare and contrast the current theories of leadership; the charismatic theory, the transactional theory and the transformational theory of leadership. The different theories’ implication to the early educational settings will also be discussed through the essay.

As key workers we assess our key children in all areas to achieve to their standards and we record these in their learning development journals which we share with the child and parents. At the end of their time in our setting the child is four years old getting ready to enter reception in schools so they will be on their way to achieving the early learning goals they should reach by five years and this is recorded in their learning journeys and end of setting evaluation.

Throughout this assignment a discussion will take place into the theories of leadership, whilst examining the role of managers within the context of the early years. A series of management competences will be evaluated, whilst investigating the notions of leadership and collaboration.