Doing the Right thing
A one day early childhood education conference in Cambridge.
Kaetsu Conference Centre, May 8th
We met as a group of a hundred educators and professionals interested in exploring outdoor learning environments with young children. We asked:
- What does doing the right thing mean in practice?
- How can we translate the fine words in our documents and vision statements to actual practice in our settings?
- What really happens when we seek to support children’s idea and collaborate with other professionals?
At the end of the day, delegates reflected on their learning and new resolve:
- Educators need educating to allow time and space.
- The most useful part of the conference to me was renewal. I had been bogged down by bureaucracy and started to lose sight of children. Back in my workplace, I will expand my outside environment and make it less tame.
- Today has make me think about how to inspire other adults to see children and their rights in this way and the amount of learning and dialogue that can be shared from thoughtful documentation.
- I think that children need to be trusted by adults to lead their own learning and that educators need to support and extend their thinking then given them freedom to develop.
- I think that educators have over-listened to the government and underlistened to their hearts.
- Back in my workplace I may start a revolution.
The day began with an exploration of ‘good companionship’ from Robin Duckett (Director of Sightlines Initiative) and Dorothy Gregory (former Headteacher of Walkergate Children’s Centre). Helen Moylett, Senior Director (Early Years) of National Strategies, picked up the threads of this as she reviewed the EYFS key principles.
These talks explored:
- The importance of building relationships between educators, between children, between families, between each other and with the world.
- How to take responsibility for creating environments that support these relationships.
- The need to cultivate creativity and curiosity in ourselves.
- The significance of meeting children where they are and supporting their questions.
Workshops were arranged in two separate but interconnected strands, Finding a Way and Good Companionship. In Which Way do we go?, Deb Wilenski reflected on the experience of journeying with children in the wild, wide world, exploring the big ideas of time, space and natural engagement. Whilst Stories from the Garden of Curiosity focused on work carried out at Two Village Primary School in Harwich and their dynamic outdoor learning environment that offers a space to play, grow, dig and imagine. Learning to Listen looked in further detail at the research carried out by the Walkergate Children’s Centre staff whilst Building a Learning Community reflected on the Forest Explorers project run by North Cambridge Children’s Centre with CCI.
Key memories of the workshops shared at the plenary session included:
- I was struck by how the group took only rugs, food and water as they ventured into the woods. This enabled an openness and meant they could act in the moment.
- I will remember being asked ‘Where do we dare to go?’, ’What does adventure taste like?’.
- The teachers talked about how they now bought more of themselves into the classroom. They had learnt to say yes more.
- The adults learnt to put aside their own plans. They sought to lift the threshold on what was allowed. They tried not to name things but to let the children explore.
Helen Moylett, added that the conference had enabled us as a group to create something really substantial during the day: We have been working with curiosity and imagination to connect ideas, make meaning, tell stories, to meet and listen together. This has helped me be a better learner today. It would be amazingly powerful if we can do this for our children.
Presentations (please click to download):
Robin Duckett and Dorothy Gregory - Doing the Right Thing
Helen Moylett - Learning with Children
Deb Wilenski - Which way do we go?
Vanessa Lindsay and James Newell - Stories from the Garden of Curiosity
The conference was organised by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, Sightlines Initiative (www.sightlines-initiative.com) and Refocus Cambridge.
