I believe in creating a inclusive, safe and nurturing environment where children can develop holistically.

I believe in creating an inclusive, safe, and nurturing environment where children can develop holistically. Values play a central role in shaping how we act, think, and make decisions and guide educators in their interactions with children and families (Murray, 2018). 

My values as an educator are deeply rooted in respect, inclusion, collaboration, and a strong belief in the importance of outdoor play and learning. I believe that every child is unique, capable, and has the right to be heard and valued. This reflects the Aistear curriculum, which places the child at the centre of learning. Because of this value, I aim to listen to children, follow their interests, and support child-led learning experiences. 

Inclusion is also a key value in my role, as it promotes equity, respect for diversity, and ensure all children can participate meaningfully in learning (Odom and Wolery, 2003).I believe all children, including those with additional needs, should have equal opportunities to participate and succeed. This has shaped my identity as an educator who adapts activities and the environment to meet the needs of all the children. I also value working in partnership with parents, team workers, and other professional stakeholders, as I understand that collaboration supports better outcomes for children.  

Another important value is reflective practice. Reflective practice is essential in early years as educators develop their professional identity and improve practice through ongoing dialogue and reflection. (Stamopoulos and Barblett, 2020). I regularly think about my work and consider how I can improve the quality of the experience I have. This links to Siolta, which highlights the importance of ongoing reflection and quality improvement. My interest in outdoor play also helps develop holistic development, as I aim to create natural environments where children can explore take risk and develop physically and emotionally. 

Yes, I believe that personal and professional values overlap. In early years values such as respect, kindness, fairness and empathy are important; these values are reflected in both professional and personal day-to-day life. Responding to a child's interests, supporting emotions, creates a safe and nurturing environment. Aistear supports this by emphasizing the importance of relationships and the child's voice in learning. Equality and fairness support inclusion. This means ensuring that all children feel valued and have equal opportunities that are valued. 

Respect is valued by listening to and responding to the children's voices, acknowledging their feelings, and treating each child as an individual. This translates into practice through supporting children by encouraging independence and creating an inclusive environment where all children feel valued and safe. Recognizing parents as the child's first teachers and working in partnership with them. 

Care and empathy come hand in hand as a value. Showing we care means being able to respond to children's emotional and physical needs. By providing comfort when needed, celebrating achievement and supporting children through challenges can help create secure attachments which builds children's confidence and overall wellbeing. It's important for children to feel safe so they can engage, explore, and learn. Inclusion means that all children regardless of ability, race and needs have equal opportunities to participate in. I do this by adapting activities, using inclusive communication and challenging bias. If needed, I will adapt to the room layout. Through books and circle time i help children support different cultures. I believe child-led and outdoor play is important as it reflects an engaging environment and natural play, where children explore, take risks, and learn through real experiences. 

Yes, all values are aligned with the policies in my setting. We have a equality, diversity and inclusion policies as well as safeguarding and wellbeing policies.  

While completing this qualification, it has helped me by giving my professional knowledge to become more confident and child-centered in your practice. It has given me knowledge of child development and learning. It has helped me make plans according to children's needs and abilities. It has shown me how important reflective practice is, and to think critically about my work and how to make improvements when needed. 

My knowledge changes every day through observations with children and families, as every day brings new situations that have challenges and perspectives. Children interests change my knowledge as some interests I may not know a lot of for instance one child had an interest in bees, so I had to expand my knowledge of been. Engaging with other stakeholders also improves my knowledge. Working alongside speech and language therapists and other early intervention professionals helps develop mechanisms to help children that may be struggling. Parents expand my knowledge as some children may has English as their second language and have different belief and cultures and traditions and can teach me theirs. 

Within my role, it does require upskilling and CPD. CPD is an important part of practice because it enhances educators' knowledge, skills and expertise, supporting high quality practice and better outcomes for children (Barnardo's, 2021). Every 3 years we are required to complete a FAR training; I also keep up to date with my Children's first training. 

I also like to keep up to date with the Aistear webinars and LINC Co-Ordinator CPD. Better start, nurturing skills learning hub, Barnardo's all have great CPD, I have recently enrolled in a sensory processing learning course.  

My practice is a emergent curriculum with an emphasis on a child-led approach. It's reflective and inclusive. The children are at the centre of the planning though observations on their learning. Play is supported and meaningful and with adult interactions throughout. Reflective practice happens regularly to evaluate what is effective and where to make changes. My interactions are warm and supportive, helping to build secure relationships. New research and policies and government guidelines will be a must. Keeping up to date with these changes ensures extra knowledge. 

In conclusion, values are important in all careers but personally my values towards children are respect, inclusion, child-led, caring and empathic. I believe these help support children's holistic development and help shape them into becoming positive and resilient adults. Values are the core foundations of an educator. They guide your actions and relationships and create experiences with children. 

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Student ID:  15503

Module Code: 5003

Module Name: Placement hun

Component:  001

Word Count, excluding List of References, Cover sheet and Appendices: 

Description:  ePortfolio

Tutor name:  Samantha Cooney

Due Date: 24th May

By submitting this coversheet with your coursework, you are confirming that the work is your own. For information on regulations around plagiarism please refer to your Learner Handbook.