Glen Education Glover Street

Respecting the child's voice.

By Jin Yan, Early Childhood Teacher

At Glen Glover Street Kindergarten, the voice of the child is embedded and respected within our program and learning environment in many different ways, supporting our kindergarten values of being kind, respectful and safe. 

Children are active participants in their decision- making and choices, providing them the opportunity to engage in provocations and learning moments that develop their deeper understanding of their rights within the world around them.

Our Educators strive to provide a safe and nurturing environment where children feel confident to voice their opinions and ideas, as well as role-modelling and encouraging active listening. 

We aim to encourage the child’s voice everyday by supporting the interests and agency of each child, listening to their ideas and suggestions, acknowledging and respecting each child’s differences and perspectives, collaborating positively with families, facilitating a full indoor/outdoor routine to allow choice and embracing learning moments as they happen. Children are active participants in contributing to our program and documentation, guiding the learning spaces and contributing to the reflection book and mind maps which are displayed around the room. 

A recent example of incorporating the child’s voice into the program was evident last week. A small group of children approached the Educator communicating that the cubby house was messy and wasn’t engaging. The Educator sat with the children and facilitated a group discussion that allowed each child the opportunity to share and document their ideas on what we could set up in the cubby house. Collectively, the children decided to set it up as a doctor’s surgery. The Educator and the children observed the space as a visual guide, prompting a discussion about the next steps needed to transform the learning space. Together the children worked to clean the area, sweeping and removing the sand from the floor. They walked around the kindergarten and collected various furniture items that would be suitable for their vision, as well as sourcing resources from our cupboards such as rugs, pillows, clipboards, bandages, stethoscopes, medicine bags and scrubs. Working alongside the Educator and each other, the cubby house was transformed into a doctor’s surgery. This has since prompted many learning opportunities such as role play, positive communication, investigating different body parts and showing care and empathy to one another.