Keeping Children Safe

E1. Five main legislations which influence healthy, safe and secure environments for early years settings are: 1. Health and Safety at Work 1974 2. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSSH) Regulations 2002 3. Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 4. Childcare Act 2006 5. Food Safety Act 1990
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Bump on the head
The procedure that the practitioner should follow when child bumps his/ her head is: Check if the child is conscious and let the child sit down. Next apply cold compress to the bumped area. If a child has got a cut on his/hers head make sure you put disposable gloves on and simply apply gentle pressure to the cut using a cloth. If there is a cut over the bump, wait for the bleeding to stop, then examine in closely. If the cut is very deep and the bleeding doesn’t stop call an ambulance otherwise put a plaster on the cut. At last observe the child throughout the day and make sure you record the incident in the accident book and inform parents about the incident.
Asthma attack
When a child has an asthma attack first thing to do is to get child’s inhaler immediately and sit child forward with comfort. Then remove triggers if possible. If child doesn’t improve after 5 minutes call the emergency number and parents. While waiting repeat giving child the medication every few minutes. Lastly record the incident in the accident book and inform the parents.
Sickness and diarrhoea
When a child has a sickness and diarrhoea first thing you must do is to put protective gloves on and wear apron to prevent cross infection. Then reassure child and give sips of water regularly. Make sure you take the child in another room to prevent other children/staff catching it. Keep a potty close by for younger children and make sure you have some spare clothes in case of accidents. You need to make sure that child’s parents/carers are coming to pick the child up and take the child home. Explain to the parents what has happened and record the incident in the accident book
Shows symptoms and signs of meningitis
Symptoms such as: dislike of bright light, stiff neck and severe headache can be a sign of meningitis. Knowing the signs and symptoms of meningitis and getting medical help immediately can save lives. If a child has any of these symptoms the practitioner should call emergency number immediately and informed child’s parents. Meningitis is a notifiable disease. A child with any of these illnesses should not be in an early years or education settings and parents should contact the child’s GP.

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E5. Describe the issues that affect the planning of a challenging environment for children. A challenging environment is an environment in which the children are fully engaged, participating in an activity and making an effort to learn. For challenging environment you need to be able to plan the lessons and teach the children with a view from the challenging environment. There are many issues that affect the planning of a challenging environment for children.
The issues can include; * Individual children's needs (eg: age, mobility) –the child may already be able to do a certain activity and get bored with the activity because they won’t be interested if it’s not hard enough to have a go and try * When the practitioner is planning to provide the children with a challenging environment, he/she must take into account various aspects to the activity and whether it will work with the children, for example, health and safety. The practitioner must risk assess the area before taking the children there which would be in the health and safety policies and procedures required by the setting. The practitioner would have to make sure that, for example, the local park has no risks such as broken glass, gates that can’t be locked and. concrete floors below climbing frames that can’t harm the children. * Layout of room and the size- make sure the room is compatible and big enough to have room for all the activities needed and big enough to complete any large activities. And to make sure children with disability have a lot of room to move around in the wheelchair. * Is equipment suitable and safe? - ensure the children are old enough to use the equipment and know what to do with it and not but also if it’s ok for them to use with little supervision.

E6. * Forest Schools
Forest schools are a type of outdoor education in which children visit forests/woodlands on a regular basis. Forest schools seek to encourage, motivate, engage and inspire children through positive outdoor experiences.Forest schools give children a chance to explore and investigate nature around them. All sessions at forest school are designed based on the needs of children. Sessions are designed on different themes each time so that children can learn something new every time they are in the forest school. Most of the times the themes depend on the season. For example in my placement in forest school children are learning and exploring what happens at spring. They were looking around and talking pictures the forest to see any signs of Spring. At the forest school children are given freedom to direct their own learning and enter in to a certain amount of ‘risky-play’ which may involve climbing the trees. * Learning outside the classroom (National Initiative)

Learning outside the classroom influence provision to have a challenging environment for children provide children and young people to have variety of high quality learning, the manifesto is connected to learning outside the classroom partnership has created resources with the help of many experts and practitioners in learning outside the classroom, the resources is designed to help professional working with young children ages 0-9years to provide them with high quality experiences this is linked to Every Child Matter as its helping to meet children’s needs by providing them with good experience. Children get a lot of benefit from Learning Outside the Classroom as it helps to reduce behaviour problems among children and improve their attitude to learning along with gaining more essentials skills from using a wider range of resources in the outdoors, physical development outdoor environment allow children to be more active as they can play using climbing frames, riding bikes and tricycle.

* Steiner’s Theory
Steiner’s theory on education is based on community education and the great importance on the bond between child and adult. Like Froebel and Montessori, he thought that emotional well-being and self-esteem are central to a child’s development. Steiner placed great importance on physical well-being and a healthy diet taking a holistic approach to his theory on education, he also placed importance on the environment as well. Children with special needs where encouraged to participate in play to help children develop a higher standard of empathy.

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D1. Legislation can support strategies to establish and maintain healthy, safe and secure environments in early years settings one by having regulation and stages that every person needs to complete successfully before being able to work with children, this can be done by having every applicant for a new position for working with children to complete a CRB check which must come back with no criminal conviction before any new member can work in a setting or facility that involves working with children. This helps to ensure that no one who could be a threat to the children or other staff members cannot qualify to work with children in an early years setting or any setting involving children.

Another way that legislations support strategies to establish and maintain healthy, safe and secure environments in early years settings is by training all new members of staff who already past their CRB check. This will ensure that all members of staff are properly trained in the policies and procedures of that setting so they will know the correct way to handle different situation that may occur when working in that setting, such as what to do if a child is ill, or have vomited in the setting what’s the proper procedures to follow.

D2.
C1. A Forest school is a school where children get to learn through outdoor play and learning. The theory behind forest schools is that they encourage individual children at any age to learn through positive outdoor play experiences. By taking part in activities in a woodland environment each individual child has an opportunity to develop motivation, good emotional and social skills in which through self-awareness can be developed to reach their potential. Forest Schools has had success with children of all ages who visit the same local woodlands on a regular basis and through play, who have the opportunity to learn about the natural environment, how to handle risks and most importantly to use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others.

In forest schools when learning from outdoor play children use full sized tools, play, learn boundaries of behaviour; both physical and social, establish and grow in confidence, self-esteem and become self-motivated. Forest schools help to develop self-awareness, self regulation, intrinsic motivation, empathy, good social communication skills, independence and a positive attitude, self-esteem and confidence while learning through outdoor play.

Learning outside the classroom helps give children the chance to feel free as at 3- 16years children love being outdoors as they adapt better and tend to learn and explore more thing which allows them to become more interested in learning about their surroundings as there more space for children to move around freely compared to being indoors.

Forest Schools have qualified practitioners and has been running over a long period of time in the woodland environment meet every child matter requirements as children have the chance to develop their fine and gross motor by doing physical activities along with giving children independence which can be encouraged though trying out risky situation and environment, according to the Statutory Framework for the EYF’S, 2007‘A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right, and it provides the foundation for children to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up’ this is showing that it’s important that settings provide children the right to adapt their curriculum so children can have more outdoor play rather than just being in a classroom, some of the main benefits that children get from learning outside the classroom teaches children good risk management but some things do need to be removed if it could cause serious harm to children. Give children the opportunity for children to have a child cantered learning and if required adult-led.

B1. Practitioners must always maintain safety, privacy and respect for children’s wishes. Practitioners must follow policies and procedures to maintain the children’s safety. They must follow the confidentiality policy and may not breach confidentiality under any circumstance apart from if they have been asked to by law.

As practitioners you must respect that children want privacy, such as taking them into a room where nobody else is present to change their nappy. If they are older and toilet trained, they may want to close the door on the cubicle, this is giving them some privacy however you are still keeping them safe as there are no locks on the doors, this benefits you and the child.

Children should be given the opportunity to speak about what they would like to do when they are in the setting. For example, in my placement the practitioners would sit down with the children and have circle time, the practitioners would ask each child what they would like to do in the setting on that day. Sometimes the practitioners would give a choice of 3 activities and ask the children to choose which they would prefer to do, whichever activity was chosen the most then the practitioners would do that activity. However, they would make it fair to the other children and do the other activities that were chosen on other days. It is important that you consult with the children and let them be heard, this makes the child feel heard and respected.

Some children will be less confident than others and will have low self-esteem, as a practitioner you must have a sensitive understanding towards these children and help them build their self-esteem. You can help them build their self-esteem by observing them and then praising them on certain things they do, by doing this other children may want to join in with this child and that will help the child to boost their self-esteem by interacting with other children.

Risk assessments must be carried out for all different activities that take place and trips outside of the setting. Practitioners must be aware of dangers to the children in and outside of the setting. For example, it is important to regularly check the toilet floor in case it is wet which could result in a child slipping and hitting their head. Practitioners should do a monthly or even weekly check on the children’s toys to see if anything is broken or a hazard to the children.

It is important for you as a practitioner to work with parents and be able to talk to them often. This can be done by sending emails/letters. Some parents may not allow their children to eat certain things, and some may only want their child to sleep for a certain amount of time. By respecting their parents’ wishes you are also respecting the child’s wishes. It is also important to work with parents because when observing their children you may find that they have additional needs, or if they already have additional needs you may need to have other professionals involved forming a multiagency team. Parents must be constantly informed of how their child is progressing and how other professionals are getting on with their child.
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