Working with Children free essay sample

Statutory sector – this is a service provided and funded by the government. It is a legal requirement for all children to attend school as they have the right to be educated. An example of this is a local primary school called St. Nicholas; this provides opportunities for children to receive support, care and an education. Another example of a statutory sector would be the NHS as it is funded through the government who get the money from tax payers that pay for the specialist equipment needed and wages for the doctors, nurses and other staff. Voluntary sector – this service is where people volunteer to work at a place where they don’t get paid to help out people in need. This is not funded by the government. An example of this is Haslingden Community Link and Children’s centre this offers counselling, advice, childcare, parenting and benefits to children and families. We will write a custom essay sample on Working with Children or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Charities are also a voluntary service such as Children in Need that raise money. Private Sector – this service is not provided by the government it is run by individuals and companies for profit. Parents have to pay to send their child but it is better for working parents because they offer more flexible hours. An example would be Cherry Tree Pre School in Rossendale that offers the same as a statutory preschool but more of a wide range of hours. (E2) Statutory school services try to support children by providing an education. It also helps the children through physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social development. As they will be doing physical activities like P. E, through English, maths and science they will learn intellectually, they will also be meeting a range of different children which will help with their social skills. For families the statutory sector provides advice, counselling and parenting. It also helps parents out by giving their children a safe place to go when they are working. Voluntary services such as charities raise money for families in need that help provide them with food, clothes and shelter. Also they offer advice and counselling. A good example of a voluntary service would be a youth club that support teenagers. They provide activities and day trips like for example my local youth club took us to Alton Towers for free. They benefit young adults by giving them a place to belong and keeping them off the streets and committing crimes they also offer support and advice. The private sector like private schools and nurseries assists out with families who work long hours for a safe environment for their children to stay. Private schools offer a more advanced education than a statutory school as well as excellent expectations from all children. Private schools are usually expensive because of the high standard that is expected. The private sector provides children with a sense of independence and maturity. (E3) Legislation is a statutory law in a childcare setting and promotes two main things; safety/protection and the rights of children. Children’s rights include education, shelter and freedom. The Children Act 1989/2004 This act aims to protect the child from harm and to work in partnership with parents, ensuring that â€Å"the welfare of the child is paramount. ’’ It forms the legal framework that sets quality standards in most voluntary and private sector children services, and enables OFSTED to operate a registration and inspection system for these services. Children’s basic care and protection is an important part of this act, The Children Act 2004 sets out the process of integrated services for children. In order to achieve the outcomes of ‘Every Child Matters† In court the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration. Their main aims are for every child, whatever their background or circumstances, to have the support they need to: * Be healthy * Stay safe * Enjoy and achieve * Make a positive contribution * Achieve economic well-being Childcare Act 2006 This legislation replaced part 10A of the Children’s Act 1989. The act also lays our registration and inspection arrangements providing for an integrated education and care framework for the early years (EYR) and general childcare registers (GCR). This directly links to OFSTED EYR for people caring for children aged from birth to 31 August after their  fifth birthday and the GCR for childcare over this age. The GCR has two parts: the compulsory part (for providers of childcare for children aged  five to seven) and a voluntary part (for providers of childcare for children aged  eight and over or childcare that is exempt from registering on a compulsory basis). (E4) Principles * The welfare of the child is paramount. * Practitioners contribute to children’s care, learning and development and this is reflected in every aspect of practice. Practitioners work with parents and families who are partners in the care, learning and development of their children. Principles and Values that underpin working with children * Put the child first – The child’s needs come first such as food, drink, shelter etc. Recognize if they need help, and take into account any learning difficulties. Also the safeguarding of chi ldren is most important â€Å" You should always remember when working with children is that their welfare is paramount† (Tassoni, 2007) – the children act 1989. Never to use physical punishment – Other ways practitioners deal with behavior without using any physical punishment are through behavior policies e. g. ‘The naughty chair. ’ Award systems are also used for good behavior. To physically handle a child a practitioner needs to be qualified to restrain, have an appropriate reason to restrain a child and record the incident. * Respect parent/ carer – This includes getting their consent, respecting their confidentiality, professional communication such as using manners, valuing what they want for their child and treating all as equal. Respect staff and other professionals – Value their opinions even if you do not agree with them, to not cause arguments, using manners to not undermine them and listen to them * Respect families views/ beliefs – Show respect for what they celebrate e. g. Ramadam, Christmas, Hanukah etc. Respect different cultures and teach children the other beliefs so they don’t grow up to be ignorant to other religions, don’t discriminate and keep opinions to yourself. * Equality and Diversity – Keep in consideration that all children are unique and have different needs that need to be met, treat all hildren the same no matter their differences and make sure every child has equal opportunities. * Honor Confidentiality – Do not use the child’s name use initials or ‘Child A’ and don’t use their date of birth or name of setting in your observations. All children’s information should be stored away in a safe place such as a filing cabinet in an office. Any information stored on computers must have a password. (E5) All children are unique and they all have different needs. In the childcare setting it is important to realise this as diversity is crucial. In the setting you must never discriminate against any child or their parents as it is not professional and it’s important to respect what parents want for their child even if you may not agree with it. In the childcare setting you will come across children with all sorts of different religions and cultures and you need to make sure you value children’s lifestyles and to introduce children to difference so they don’t grow up to be ignorant towards other cultures. In the setting ways you can demonstrate to children different cultures and religions by celebrating religious festivals such as Eid which in my practice the placement had an Eid party which included foods they eat in Eid and the outfits they wear. By offering different cultures and religions to children this can give them a good understanding and may result in them choosing a culture/religion they want to believe in. Children are different in many other ways such as intellect. No doubt in any setting there will be children with a low ability of learning and as childcare worker such as a teacher it is your job to adapt activities to suit the individual needs of some children. It is important to include all children and to not leave any out as that will leave children with low self-esteem issues, for example if you are doing an activity with the children and one child has a learning difficulty it is not fair to leave them out to do their own thing. In any childcare setting you have to respect and value the parents views, beliefs and needs for their children and even if you have different views and beliefs you have to keep your opinions to yourself. (E6) Professional skills Good team worker – being an effective team worker is important because in the childcare setting staff and other professionals need to work together to provide children with the right education and the right care needed for them to develop properly. Team work can also help yourself as you can learn through other professionals and adapt your ways if necessary. Consistent and Fair – It is important to have consistency in the childcare setting as children realize when things aren’t quite the same for example if the teacher tells someone off for something one day and then the next they don’t. If the teacher isn’t consistent it can be very confusing the children. Fairness is also very important in the setting as every child should be treated as equal and it wouldn’t be fair if one child got to do one thing and another child didn’t. Organised – Organisational skills are vital in childcare as the childcare worker has to plan out a range of activities for different days e. g. eachers will need to plan everything from lessons plans to homework sheets. Being organised helps you to know what is expected of each day and to be prepared to meet those expectations. Organisation also ties in with time management skill because you need to organise your time to see where you can fit in some work or planning. (E7) Study skills Skills that will help me complete my training successfully include time management skills, this can be used by making a timetable of your time to easily see where to fit some study time in, this helps organisational skills which is key to successfully completing my training. Research is very important for assignments as it will help you learn certain things you are not taught in lessons. Research can be done in your spare time and will help me pick up extra marks to help me get the grade I want. Taking time out of your life to do some revising will help pieces of information stick in your memory for when it comes to writing your assignments. In practice a skill that is important for your training is note-taking as it will help you remember things you observe in your setting that you can include in your diary tasks and assignments as evidence. At placement you can observe the teacher and study how they are with the children so you can take what you’ve learnt and use it in your own practice. Other ways of studying can include listening to music as it helps some people focus some people prefer to study with others because they learn better through teamwork, others prefer to work on their own in their own space with no distractions. (D1) It is important for the practitioner to build an appropriate relationship with parents; an easy way to do this is to make sure you have good communication with them. For example make sure that you talk them in the appropriate language for example using their manners e. g. please and thank you. Therefore if you have good commutation skills and good body language when working with parents they are more likely to trust you when looking after their children. Although, it is very unprofessional if a practitioner was to have an inappropriate relationship with parents such as if a practitioner has a friendship with a parent it puts the practitioner in difficult situation where the parent may want you to breach the rules of confidentiality and ask you to give them some private information. Another reason it is a problem for a professional to have a friendship with a parent is that it can cause problems for others for example if there is a situation between two children where one child hits another and the parent asks you to tell them who the other child that hit their child is and this would be breaking confidentiality. When a practitioner has a friendship with a parent the parent may ask you to treat their child different to the others which is unprofessional because in the childcare setting the practitioner must treat all children equally. It is also essential that the practitioner has a professional relationship with other professionals in the setting as it helps to work as a team and it’s important that you respect other professionals even if you don’t particularly like them. The practitioner must listen to the other professional’s opinions and thoughts and you must value all members in your setting team. (D2) When working in any childcare setting you will work as a team. A childcare worker will also liaise with other professionals inside and outside of the setting. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘multi-agency approach. ’ It is a way of working that ensures children and young people who need additional support have exactly the right professionals needed to support them. Multi-agency working provides benefits for children, young people and families because they receive tailor-made support in the most efficient way. The benefits of this include * early identification and intervention * easier or quicker access to services or expertise * improved achievement in education and better engagement in education * better support for parents children, young people and family’s needs addressed more appropriately * better quality services * Reduced need for more specialist services. To make an effective team every team member must feel valued and welcomed. Peoples views must be respected learn from each other and adapt practice if necessary, provide each other with support and encouragement to achieve goals and good communication. Pro fessionals in a multi-agency team include midwives, social workers, special needs coordinator, teachers, parent’s behavioral psychologist etc. Characteristics of a Multi-Agency team: * Co-operation * Consistancy * Encouragement * Respect * Efficiency * Sharing/ confidentiality * Support * Communication * Use common assessment framework (C) The early years practitioner should listen to children’s views and value their opinions as â€Å"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression† UN Convention (1991) Children need to be listened to so that the practitioner can get an idea of the child’s likes, dislikes, abilities and areas of development so that they can plan suitable activities for the child. If listened to, children will also gain a sense of belonging in the setting and realise they are being valued and respected. As a result children may reflect the practitioner’s attitude towards them in their behaviour towards others. Showing children that they are valued and listening to their views allows them to respect themselves and be more confident, not just in their work but their daily routines too. They will be increasingly open minded and out spoken, therefore making it easier for practitioners to understand a child’s wants and needs and successfully providing them. Hannah Mortimer, author of various early years’ books and an educational psychologist, believed that young children should be allowed to have a say and be included in decision making when planning so practitioners can ensure that children have equal opportunities, feel involved and successful in their learning and play. They should be given activities and interventions to suit their interests and strengths. Therefore children will feel a greater sense of achievement when they recognise that their opinions were the source of their success. If a practitioner doesn’t listen to the children’s views or value their opinions it can cause problems for the child as it may make them think they are not valued or respected and may be left with a low self-esteem. Also if not listened to children may not listen to others and have a lack of understanding that listening is important. (B) Whilst you are training and on placement there are certain things you can and cannot do and you are expected to behave in a professional manner such as using manners and respecting children, staff and parents. The settings policies and procedures should help you with this. The key areas of roles, limits and boundaries are; -Health and safety -Managing children’s behaviour -Child protection -Confidentiality It is essential for practitioners to know the limits and boundaries because if they push the boundaries they might contradict and undermine the teacher. If a practitioner feels a child is in danger at home like important to tell an appropriate source such as the schools safe-guarding officer. When working with children it is important to follow the rules on confidentiality for example if a child in your setting had an issue at home with their family you would keep this confidently and only tell members of staff in the setting . You would not go out of your setting and use any of the children names as this is a breach of the confidentiality. It’s also important to know that the only time a practitioner can breach the confidentiality rules is if a child is in danger and you need to urgently access their information. Rules of managing children’s behaviour are as follows; No physical punishment is allowed and if it happens the practitioner will face a prison sentence as it is against the law. You are not allowed to physically handle the children such as to grab or pick up a child, only if you are specialised to restrain and only if you have an appropriate reason to do so and the incident must be recorded. (A) A child centred approach is early years setting is very important in for the children because it shows that we value the children the most and everything we do is centred around them. One of the key features of the child centred approach is that every child is unique and needs adults to fully support the development to their full potential. A child centred approach should give all children the support they need to: be healthy stay safe enjoy and achieve make a positive contribution achieve economic well-being All places for children and young people (school/nursery) are based on the individual so they can focus on the individual needs of the child or young person rather than a whole group of children and young people. Ways to show a child centred approach are in the classroom environment by having cupboards low down so it is easy for children to access, small chairs and small tables, displayed work of the children’s, colourful decorations, books, toys etc. all these show that we value the children. Other ways you can provide a child centred approach are through promoting independence by letting children do their own thing like reading a book, they may hold the book upside down, or they may turn 3 pages at once but as long as they are being independent and learning through experiences it doesn’t matter. The child centred approach first came from the Reggio Emilia approach, this is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started by Lors Malaguzzi, who was a teacher in Italy, the people of Reggio Emilia believed that in the early years of development that children form who they were as individuals. This led to a program based on respect, responsibility and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive way based on the kid’s interests.