Glen Education Orrong Road

Empowering Children

Maree Cust , Early Childhood Teacher

Child Safe Standard 3 – Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously

• 3.1 Children and young people are informed about all of their rights, including to safety, information and participation.
• 3.2 The importance of friendships is recognised and support from peers is encouraged, to help children and young people feel safe and be less isolated. 
• 3.3 Where relevant to the setting or context, children and young people are offered access to sexual abuse prevention programs and to relevant related information in an age-appropriate way. 
• 3.4 Staff and volunteers are attuned to signs of harm and facilitate child-friendly ways for children and young people to express their views, participate in decision-making and raise their concerns.
• 3.5 Organisations have strategies in place to develop a culture that facilitates participation and is responsive to the input of children and young people. 
• 3.6 Organisations provide opportunities for children and young people to participate and are responsive to their contributions, thereby strengthening confidence and engagement.

At Glen Orrong Road Kindergarten we always give children the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts and are respected for their individualities and differences. Our daily meetings provide a safe space for children to contribute their thoughts or give examples of what they already know about the topic we are discussing. Questions are always encouraged, and children are invited to try and think of what the answers or solutions could possibly be, before adults solve the problems or provide the answers for them. The children are reminded that if they could not come to any resolutions to their issues without adult assistance, then all the teaching team is always there anytime they need more support.

The old phrase of “Stop it I Don’t Like it!” is not a phrase we encourage, obviously we think it is extremely important to tell someone to stop doing something we don’t like, but we want our children to also name the action that they would like to cease and the reasons why. E.g., “Stop calling me silly names, it really hurts my feelings” or “Stop breaking my building, I worked really hard on that” or “Stop pushing me, it really hurts, and I don’t like being pushed”

For children’s birthday celebrations at kindergarten, rather than have the birthday friend bring in treats for everyone else, we have flipped that expectation, and instead encourage the children in the class to draw a picture for the birthday friend and think of a birthday wish or something they would like to say to the birthday friend, which we then help them write on the picture. All these beautiful drawings and birthday wishes then get collated into a “Birthday Book” which is presented to the birthday friend at our meeting. This is another example of how our children are able to voice their thoughts and ideas in relation to thinking about other people in the class and provides a moment where kindness and thoughtfulness is promoted.

As a professional team of educators, we also understand that different children feel different connections with different members of the team. Much as we do as adults, we have a range of friends who we connect with on various levels. This understanding of relationships means that while we remind our children that we are all available to help them when they need it, our children also know that when there are more sensitive things they need support with, they are free to seek that help or support from the member of the team who they feel most comfortable with.