Statement of intent

Our pre-school believes that children flourish best when they know how they are expected to behave and should be free to play and learn without fear of being hurt or unfairly restricted by anyone else.

Aim

We aim to provide an environment in which there is acceptable behaviour and where children learn to respect themselves, other people and their environment.

Method

We have named staff members who have overall responsability for issues concerning behaviour, Lorraine Connor and Cate Pruce.

We require the nemed people to:

                * keep her/himself up to date with legislation and research and thinking on handling children's behaviour

                * access relevant sources of expertise on handlinchildren's behaviour;

                * check that all staff have relevant in-service training on handling children's behaviour.

We require all staff, volunteers and students to provide a positive model of behaviuor by treating children, parents and one another with friendliness, care and courtesy.

We require all staff, volunteers and students to use positive strategies for handling any confliict by helping children find solutions in ways which are appropriate for the children's ages and stages of development.

We famliliarise new staff and volunteers with the pre-school', behaviour policy and its rules for behaviour.

We expect all members of the pre-school-children, parents, staff, volunteers and students-to keep to the rules, requiring these to be applied constantly.

We praise and endorse  desirable behaviour such as kindness and willingness to share.

We avoid creating situations in which children receive adult attention only in return for undesirable behaviour.

We recognise 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 pre-school.

When children behave in unacceptable ways, we help them to see what was wrong and how to cope more appropriately.

We never send children out of the room by themselves.

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 only use physical restraint, such as holding, to prevent physical injury to children or adults and/or serious damage to property. Details of such an event (what happened, what action was taken and by whom, and the names of the witnesses) are brought to the attention of our pre-school leader and are recorde in our Incident book.A parent is informed on the same day and signs the Incident book to indicate that he/she has been informed.

In case of serious misbehaviour, such as racial or other abuse, we make clear immediately the unacceptability of the behaviour and attitudes, by means of explanations rather than personal blame.

We do not shout or raise our voices in a threatening way to respond to children's behaviour.

We handle children's unacceptable behaviour in ways which are appropriate to their ages and stages of development- for example by with drawing the child from the situation or discussion.

We work in partnership with children' s parents. Parents are regulrly informed about their children's behaviour by their key person. We work with parents to address recurring unacceptable behaviour, using objective observation records to help us to understand the cause and to decide jointly how to respond appropriately.

Bullying involves the persistant physical or verbal abuse of another child or children. We take bullying very seriously.

If a child bullies anotherchild or children:

We intervene to stop the child harming the other child or children;

We explain to the child doing the bullying why his/her behaviour is inappropriate;

We give reassurance to the child or children that have been bullied;

We help the child who has done the bullying to say sorry for her/his actions;

We make sure that children who bully receive praise when they disply acceptable behaviour;

We do not label children who bully;

When children bully, we discuss what has happened with their parents and work out with them a plan for handling the child's behaviour;

When children have been bullied, we share what has happened with thier parents, explaining that the child who did the bullying is being helped to adopt more acceptable ways of behaving.

This policy was adopted at a meeting of Hollybush Montessori school on 26th July 2007.