Sample Chapter From Heinemann's HNC Early Education
This sample chapter from Heinemann 's HNC Early Education and Childcare student book (ISBN - 978 0 435401 01 6) has been downloaded from www.heinemann.co.uk/childcare.
Chapter 1
HNC unit covered: Unit DF4Y 34
Working in an early education and childcare setting
Introduction
Working with children is interesting and varied. It is a job that requires careful planning and preparation, personal skills and attributes. These include skills of communication, problem-solving and the ability to work with others. You will also find you need to have the skills to organise and plan activities for children and to prepare and manage the play environment for them. In this chapter you will learn about some of the practicalities of working in the early …show more content…
The best practitioners are those who are flexible and adaptable to change because when you are working with children the pattern is constantly changing. It is a truism that no two children are alike. Even if something works well for one child it may not for the next. So you need to be prepared to change your approach and to be flexible. It can be annoying if you have planned to do something and it has to be altered in some way, particularly if you are in a centre on placement for just a few weeks, but this happens. Occasionally, because of staff absence or when other situations occur in the centre, you have to change the original intentions and you have to be prepared to go with those changes. This is also true when you have prepared something because the child was really interested in it the day before but you find he or she just isn’t interested in it the next day. Again, you have to be prepared to change your plans to accommodate a new interest. Flexibility means you will have a fairly relaxed or open approach to change. You may be asked to step in for another colleague at short notice or to take responsibility for a part of the centre you hadn’t anticipated being in. The more flexible and adaptable you are, the greater the asset you will be and the more likely you will be to learn quickly. The Scottish Government …show more content…
This means you will learn to plan and create spaces where children can thrive, develop, explore, experiment and learn. A well-organised environment will be calm, creative and organised. It will give children lots of scope for exploratory and imaginative play among other types of play; it will ensure children have space in which they can be creative and can have fresh air and exercise; it will be a space in which children can be nurtured and feel safe. This doesn’t mean an environment that is too quiet, over tidy or rigidly controlled; a calm atmosphere can be created that still gives children freedom and scope for movement and play. Some nurseries organise rooms according to children’s ages. A key requirement of planning for different age groupings is an awareness of child development (see spider diagram opposite). When you work with children under 12 months, your first considerations will be about developmental and exploratory
Chapter 1
HNC unit covered: Unit DF4Y 34
Working in an early education and childcare setting
Introduction
Working with children is interesting and varied. It is a job that requires careful planning and preparation, personal skills and attributes. These include skills of communication, problem-solving and the ability to work with others. You will also find you need to have the skills to organise and plan activities for children and to prepare and manage the play environment for them. In this chapter you will learn about some of the practicalities of working in the early …show more content…
The best practitioners are those who are flexible and adaptable to change because when you are working with children the pattern is constantly changing. It is a truism that no two children are alike. Even if something works well for one child it may not for the next. So you need to be prepared to change your approach and to be flexible. It can be annoying if you have planned to do something and it has to be altered in some way, particularly if you are in a centre on placement for just a few weeks, but this happens. Occasionally, because of staff absence or when other situations occur in the centre, you have to change the original intentions and you have to be prepared to go with those changes. This is also true when you have prepared something because the child was really interested in it the day before but you find he or she just isn’t interested in it the next day. Again, you have to be prepared to change your plans to accommodate a new interest. Flexibility means you will have a fairly relaxed or open approach to change. You may be asked to step in for another colleague at short notice or to take responsibility for a part of the centre you hadn’t anticipated being in. The more flexible and adaptable you are, the greater the asset you will be and the more likely you will be to learn quickly. The Scottish Government …show more content…
This means you will learn to plan and create spaces where children can thrive, develop, explore, experiment and learn. A well-organised environment will be calm, creative and organised. It will give children lots of scope for exploratory and imaginative play among other types of play; it will ensure children have space in which they can be creative and can have fresh air and exercise; it will be a space in which children can be nurtured and feel safe. This doesn’t mean an environment that is too quiet, over tidy or rigidly controlled; a calm atmosphere can be created that still gives children freedom and scope for movement and play. Some nurseries organise rooms according to children’s ages. A key requirement of planning for different age groupings is an awareness of child development (see spider diagram opposite). When you work with children under 12 months, your first considerations will be about developmental and exploratory