We Got The Whole Team Involved And Everything Changed

Reflection is a huge part of Early Years practice – from

the beginning of our training journey we are encouraged

to evolve and develop our own professional identity, by

exploring practice, making mistakes, and learning how to

be more effective in our roles. This principle is something

that truly is at the heart of the Lullabies ethos, and we

have recently embarked on our own journey as a team.

Lullabies Nursery and Pre-School opened in 2016, in the

centre of Glenfield, Leicestershire. The old Georgian

building lends itself perfectly to a nursery environment and

we worked hard to keep some of the original features to

stay true to the character of the building. We have four

classrooms across two floors as well as 3 outdoor areas for

the children to access, including a forest school. As the

nursery enters its third year our nursery Proprietor, Emma

Platnauer and nursery Manager, Chelsie Shaw, were keen

to reflect on the nursery’s journey so far, and our vision for

the future.

As part of this reflective process a new role was

introduced within the nursery, where we employed an

Early Years Teacher, Rachael Atkins, in the role of

Pedagogical Lead. Rachael began our journey by

holding a meeting with the entire nursery team to

explore our nursery ethos. Each practitioner considered

their own pedagogy and what has shaped this, and

what their vision of the child is for when they leave

their care. The idea of this meeting was inspired by our

time spent with Kimberley training, where we found it

very valuable to reflect on questions in this way. This

really opened discussion amongst our practitioners,

where they shared their own experiences of education

as well as key people or ideas that inspire them to be

the educators they are. We were then able to use

everyone’s collaborate ideas to create a vision of who

we are as a nursery, and ultimately our nursery ethos

statement.

The next step of our process was to evaluate each of

our learning environments, considering how well they

reflected our nursery ethos, the children’s interests, and

the practitioners’ personal pedagogy. We used a

combination of observing where the children accessed,

practitioners’ knowledge of their key children, and of

course our inspiration from approaches such as Reggio

Emilia and the Danish concept of ‘hygge’ to create cosy

and safe environments where the children could

experiment and think critically in their learning

processes. This process has been ongoing and each day

practitioners reflect on their classroom and rotate

resources to ensure the children are truly reflected in

the room.

We are passionate about supporting our practitioners

and we strive to give them ownership over their own

learning and to be involved in all aspects of nursery

life. To support this we have introduced reflective

journals for each of our team, where we have a

different area or question to reflect upon each week

and encourage them to express themselves in any

way they feel they would like to in response. Each

practitioner also has their own ‘learning journey’

folder documenting their professional development.

This process although in it’s infancy, has helped

practitioners not only to explore their own pedagogy,

but to feel a sense of belonging within the nursery

and to be motivated and inspire to develop their own

practice..

So what impact do we feel this has had on our

nursery provision so far? Wellbeing is at the centre of

everything we do, both that of the children and our

practitioners. By supporting the team on their own

individual journeys and using these to fuel who we

are as a nursery we feel we have created an

environment where practitioners feel they matter;

and in return we have motivated, inspired, passionate

and dedicated educators ensuring high quality care

and education for the children at our nursery.

Our journey is ongoing and we will continue to

evolve our culture alongside our practitioners.

Our next focus will be to raise awareness of

mental health in the workplace, particularly in

an industry such as Early Years where the

demands are continually increasing in a very

difficult political climate. We will be putting

together an employee wellbeing package

including optional mindfulness and yoga

sessions, a newly renovated hygge staff room,

and training for our leadership team to be able

to support the mental health of our team to the

best of our ability.

Join the Hygge in Early Years Accreditation here