Glen Education North Cheltenham

Embedding Life Skills

By Annette G, Pamela S and Anandhi S, 

Glen North Cheltenham Educational Team

The learning environment at Glen North Cheltenham is unique. A space that is shared with the community, and one which transforms into a beautiful and rich space for children to learn and grow in each day. 

When you walk into our space you feel the energy and excitement in the air. It truly has the “feel” of a kindergarten room in amongst the Scout Hall paraphernalia, dance school costumes and playgroup toys. The eclectic items that adorn the walls are a talking point with children and with all who visit our environment.

Children learn when they feel a sense of belonging, when they are given an opportunity to express their ideas, when they feel connected to others. Our space, whilst unique in its structure, provides all these things for the children who enter our space each day.

We have been intentional in our set up of the kindergarten environment, so that we can ensure children learn the importance of being safe and make mindful choices.  

Safety with Seemore

We have been using a resource, that has a puppet called 'Seemore Safety'. The Seemore Safety series of books engages children in real life adventures that encourages them to take responsibility for their own safety. Each book embraces the interactive world of young children - these books are shared with children at group times and available for them to explore, as part of the library. 

The Seemore Safety program educates children about safe and unsafe behaviours which they may encounter in everyday life. Seemore Safety takes children on a journey that focuses on lifelong safety conceptualization.  The first story we shared was about being safe at kindergarten. We read the story and then followed this up with a discussion about what safety looks like in our kindergarten.  We have added the children’s responses to this discussion into our program reflections.  Their thoughts also help to form the shared expectations of the kindergarten.  

Seemore Safety has also visited the farm in another book. Some of the resources have images that encourage children to point out unsafe behaviours and it encourages them to think through a range of situations. We always refer back to our 'red' ('Unsafe') and 'green' (safe) choices as this is an easy way for children to consider their choices in the context of safety and how they feel (sometime when we are feeling angry, we may make a red choice!).

Mindfulness

We have started introducing the concept of mindfulness with the children, to support their wellbeing but also to give children some practical life skills, that they can use when they may be feeling frustrated or angry or overwhelmed.  The children have been really responsive and have embraced the mindfulness strategies.  We will continue to do this daily.  Mindfulness can improve children’s sleep, increase children’s awareness, enhances mental health and improves attention span.

The learning environment promotes opportunity for children to explore these concepts and develop their own understandings of the world around them.