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B R i Beach Babies Nursery LANDBEACH (ENGLAND) BRIC childhood • public space • democracy

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Page 1: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

BRi

Beach Babies NurseryLANDBEACH (ENGLAND)

BRIC childhood • public space • democracy

Page 2: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

2014-2017, staff, children & parents of Beach Babies Nursery, Landbeach, Cambridge Thanks to Charlotte Barlow, All Saints’ Church, Landbeach and the Tithe Barn Trust who have all contributed to the project

Page 3: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

The ‘Young Children, Public Spaces and Democracy’ project (BRIC) is funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme from September 2014 until August 2017. BRIC involves the democratic engagement of young children (under five years) in public spaces in their communities in England, Italy and Sweden. The rationale for the project is that young children are often excluded from access or participation in public spaces and that their democratic engagement is not only a right, but also an essential aspect of their identity, education and citizenship. We contend that there is a need to reconsider the use of public spaces to promote young children’s citizenship, through a combination of voice with action that can lead to genuine participation, inclusion and belonging. The BRIC project is a partnership between Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK (ARU), Azienda Speciale Servizi in Bassa Reggiana, Italy (ASBR) and Barnpedagogiskt Forum, Goteborg, Sweden (BPF). The BRIC acronym is derived from the names of the partners. In order to inform the main project plan a pilot project was held in 2013-14 (see the BRIC Website at www.bricproject.org)

For purposes of clarity the BRIC project uses the following generic terms in all documentation.

a. ‘Preschool’ refers to all early childhood education and care institutions involving children under five years and their families.

b. ‘Preschool teacher’ refers to all professionals working in a preschool, including qualified teachers and head teachers.

The objectives of BRIC are to enable:

• an exchange of ‘good practice’ between preschool teachers in three countries;

• systematic education and training around

Introductiondemocratic engagement in public spaces;

• the development of open educational resources and targeted activities to engage preschool teachers, parents, the local community and key stakeholders, including local politicians and representatives from business.

The BRIC project involves a minimum of six preschools in each of the three countries (Italy, Sweden and the UK) where a lead preschool teacher coordinates a systematic and progressive programme of civic engagement, starting from the dialogue between children, preschool teachers and parents. Throughout the BRIC project the ‘voices’, thoughts and impressions of the children, preschool teachers, families and communities involved have helped us build a more profound sense of belonging to the places we live in. A significant part of this process is the ‘traces’ that are left when children and adults visit public spaces. During the BRIC project the preschool teachers defined traces as ‘a gentle mark left either intentionally or unintentionally that can be discerned by others after the event, even temporarily’…and also ‘a memory that someone takes with them from experiences in the public space’. Examples of some of the actions and reflections on experience in public spaces, including the different traces formed in the BRIC project and aspects of community engagement are given in the following Case Study, which is the detailed story of one preschools’ participation in the ‘Young Children, Public Spaces and Democracy’ project.

Tim Waller BRIC coordinator

Page 4: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children
Page 5: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children are split into three age groups: the under two year olds, the two year olds and the three and four year olds. The children can attend for any number of days per week which means that overall we can have up to 38 children each day but the individual children change which in turn changes the friendship groups and dyna-mics in each room.The nursery opens from 8am until 6pm al-though the children can start and finish at times that suit their parents, most usually 8:30 to 5:30. Each child has a keyperson but parents often speak to the other staff based in their child’s age group too. The nursery is open all year round, 51 weeks a year and the majority of families use it for childcare whilst parents work.It is a private nursery, the parents pay for their children to come although once their child is aged 3 years old they are all entitled to just over a day a week of government-funded care. In general the cost of such a nursery is a major outgoing for each family.The nursery has its own garden in which the children spend time each morning and af-ternoon. The garden contains areas such as a vegetable patch, a large sand pit, a mud kitchen as well as places to hide and make dens and things to climb and swing on. It encourages physically adventurous play as well as messy activities, many of which invol-ve water in one way or another. The children also have access to an orchard which is next

presentation of the school to the nursery and from the age of two, each child visits the orchard every day. The ratio of staff to children is higher than is normal in the UK, being at maximum 1:6 for 3 and 4 year olds and 1:4 for 2 year olds and the children move up according to their date of birth rather than which school year they will be in. They start school the Septem-ber after they turn 4 and most stay at nurse-ry until the month before starting school.The children are provided with all their me-als and snacks whilst at nursery and these are cooked on site and eaten at set times of the day.The nursery is located half a mile outside a small rural village, Landbeach, which has few public buildings and no shops or schools. These buildings include a community hall, a church and an ancient thatched barn that is at threat of being sold for development unless its structure can be preserved. To get into the village there is a narrow footpath se-parate from the road and then a pavement once you enter the village and the distance and relatively busy nature of the road is a barrier to taking the children into the com-munity. Also because of the lack of facilities in Landbeach there are very few pedestrians, most people use a car to access the places they need and the sight of more than one person on foot is unusual.Landbeach is situated 4 miles away from Cambridge and many of the families using the nursery are employed in research and development or the technology industries in Cambridge.

Page 6: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

Three Year OldsOur BRIC journey began with a conside-ration of the shared spaces in our nei-ghbourhood: we learned that the village hall hosts a monthly lunch club for elderly people, so we considered this would be an interesting place to visit, off ering the children a chance to interact with a new place and new people.We discussed with the children which of them would like to go, and how we might contribute to the lunch. One child sugge-sted that we give all the old people a kiss, but we wondered whether this would be too much of a surprised for them, so we decided to introduce ourselves, ask their names and off er some food as a gift. The fi rst time we visited, we took along some cookies that the children had baked, met the organisers/chefs and had a look around the hall before the elderly peo-ple arrived. The parents were very intere-sted in this visit and were glad that their children were taking part. On the fol-lowing occasion we met with the elderly people, off ered them some brownies and talked to them. While the majority of the-se people were glad to see the children, and seemed happy to engage with them, a signifi cant number did not enjoy having the children there and ignored them. We

Out and about in Landbeach

If we do this they’ll know we’ve been here...

wondered whether these people felt that we were encroaching on “their” space by being in the village hall for this event, and so we began to thinking of other ways that we could being involved in our community.We worked with artist Charlotte Barlow to think about how we might use art as a way to make a connection with our surroundings. We showed the children a variety of contemporary art which was created in response to particular places and spaces. We took destination-less walks, during which children were aff or-ded the opportunity to stop at points during their journey through a shared and indefi nite “space” and instead create a personalised and specifi cally located “place”through mark making and move-ment. The children used fl our, cut grass, torn paper, wool, cellophane and pens to explore and transform the pavements and green spaces. A local farmer saw us out walking and invited us into his fi eld where we worked as a collective group to leave tracks in the long grass.

Page 7: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children
Page 8: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

While we enjoyed creating the artworks, and parents and children were pleased to be able to discuss what they saw on their way home, we wanted to find other ways of working with our local community that would make a contribution not only to the children’s development, but to our neighbourhood too.Landbeach is home to a 500 year old tithe barn. It is not accessible by road, and cur-rently it is in a state of disrepair and not re-gularly open to the public. A small group of trustees has been established who are applying for grants and planning creati-vely to secure its future.

We hoped that taking the children to the barn would help with this. We talked to-gether about why the barn was such a special place, and unique to this area. We wanted the children to have the op-portunity to create a relationship with this building, and with their heritage.On the first visit, we took plenty of time to move around the space freely, expe-riencing the different floorings under our feet, the ways in and out and the soun-ds made by footsteps and voices in the timber-framed building.We also used old paintbrushes to care-fully clean the wood. This helped the children to recognise that the building needs to be cared for, but all work must be done gently so as not to cause further damage.On subsequent visits we told stories about the barn and its spider residents, made pictures and maps to show its lo-cation and built models of it back in the nursery using a range of materials. The Ti-the Barn Trust also documented our visits and were able to use them to gain publi-city for their fundraising campaigns and to demonstrate that investment in pre-serving the building will serve the needs of the local community.At one point a structural survey showed that the barn was unsafe to visit. When the children heard about this they were very upset, and wrote to the Trust:

Page 9: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

We have just been talking about the barn. We are feeling sad because the tithe barn has wobbly walls. Is it only one wall? Is the roof wobbly too? Will it fall down?Will you use a hammer to fix it? Or a screw driver? Who will fix it? J says he does a great job at fixing things.  Can we see pictures of the wobbly wall and the fixing?

We hope we can go to the tithe barn again soon.Love from the Preschoolers The Trust contacted us to explain that specialists would be needed to do the re-pairs. The children were still very keen to help, and so decided to bake snacks for a stall so that we could donate the profits to help pay for the repairs.

Page 10: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

Two Year OldsThe two year old children experienced a number of visits to the local church. They explored the space with their bodies and voices-trying out sitting in the pews and moving up and down the aisle in different ways.Some of the children were fascinated by a light switch which controlled a light over the pulpit. They needed to climb a few steps to reach it, and then showed delight at being able to switch the light on and off. Other children enjoyed experi-menting with the piano, while others still wondered about the multicoloured sha-

dows on the floor, cast by sunlight throu-gh the stained glass windows. Members of the church community were delighted to see children in the church and chatted with us about the project.

Page 11: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

Can no one tell my mum about this morning because I want to tell her how good it’s been...

Page 12: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

When we began working on the public art project, we discussed with the children the fact that what happens in our nursery is relatively hidden. While the children and practitioners are able to see and enjoy what we do, and we share our learning and disco-veries with parents through displays and online resources, the rest of the community is excluded from this. The children thought this was a shame, and were keen to think of ways that we could show our work to other people.We had a lot of interesting discussions about the kinds of ways that we could leave a mark on our local area. It was important that other people would enjoy the work, and not be made upset or angry by it. The children were clear that we shouldn’t write or draw on anything that didn’t belong to us, and that all the work should be remo-vable so that people could take it away if they didn’t like it. This was an excellent in-troduction to issues around civic responsi-bility for the children. For a number of years, our setting has worked with P4C (Philoso-phy for Children/Communities) methods to enable discussion and reflection between the children. The public art project was an excellent practical example of the ways to consider other people’s opinions and how we might find compromise and mutually-acceptable ways of sharing public space. It was also important that any work we left should not pose a danger to wildlife. We have carried out local litter picks in the past,

Traces

and so the children already had an under-standing that certain items can endanger other creatures who also have a right to these spaces.With these considerations in mind, we had to find ways of being creative within certain material restrictions. We limited oursel-ves to working with grass clippings, paper which could be ripped, chalks, flour, wool, cellophane and laminated signs which we tied to existing posts. Some of these featu-res had to be removed shortly afterwards, but we careful to document the children’s work with lots of photographs first.Traces can be very subtle – a simple con-nection point to link different experiences. The two year old children made a number of visits to a piece of public sculpture out-side the village hall. It shows a Great Cre-sted Newt, which are found locally. The newt appealed very much to the children, and inspired some interesting responses in paint and clay. A 50p coin that we found there on the first visit was placed in the newt’s hand and remembered and refound on each subsequent visit.

Page 13: Beach Babies Nursery - BRIC Project€¦ · Tim Waller BRIC coordinator. Beach Babies is a small, privately-run nurse-ry caring for children aged from 10 months to 4 years. The children

It’s so nice that the children can be involved in helping the promotion of such a great project...