Setting Type: Full time

Setting Context: Classroom.

Timeframe:24th of September

Entry: on the 24th of September, my setting celebrated culture day, children were invited to dress in traditional clothing from their cultures and parents were asked to prepare foods or snacks from their cultures. Many parents and children brought in snacks they had made at home. All of the children and staff tasted the different foods and the children created pictures from their own culture, everyone had a lovely day celebrating their own and others cultures.

I gained a lot of knowledge on this day, I observed the children who brought their snacks in, appear very happy when they saw their friends trying their foods. I learned about different foods from other countries, one dish that i remember very well is a dish from Pakistan, it was rice with different food colouring and honey and the parents had named the dish "sweet rice", I was intrigued by this dish.

I enjoyed this day as I learned a lot about many different countries, I even learned of a place in Venezuela, I had never heard of before. I enjoy thinking of the knowledge I gained on this day. Understanding and gaining knowledge on all cultures helped the children and staff feel seen and created a better sense of community.

Module Links: I feel my learning form the culture day links well with my module called Leadership skills for inclusive practice, in unit 1 of this module there is an area that mentions diversity, i feel on the culture day i could really see how diverse my setting is and i really enjoyed this as seeing this allowed me to take time to appreciate the diversity. Unit 1 of the leadership for inclusive practice module also mentions inclusion, while i did notice diversity in the class groups on this day, i also noticed the inclusion aspect, the children and staff were very eager to learn about each others cultures and taste foods from other countries around the world. Everyone was eager to participate and celebrate each others differences together as one.

Module: Leadership skills for inclusive practice.

Key Learning: Diversity and inclusion were taking part at the same time, everyone was being celebrated together.

I gained knowledge on different countries such as Pakistan and Venezuela.

The importance of days such as culture day, these days help bring everyone together as a community.

Reflective Learning Logs

Reflective Learning Log 2

Setting Type: Full time

Setting Context:Classroom, conversation with parent.

Timeframe: A conversation on a day.

Entry: While engaging in a conversation with a parent who was enrolling their child into the service, the parent mentioned that they were homeless and at this moment in time they are going from house to house. The parent mentioned to me that they had a sponsor chick code for awhile but were struggling to find a creche place for the child, the parent carried on to explained how they just wanted something stable for the child and a place they know will be consistent for the wellbeing of their child.

After this interaction I reflected upon the conversation quite a bit. I began to understand the importance of a constant in a child's life, for the benefit of their development and over all wellbeing.

Reflecting upon this conversation also helped me understand some emotions that may arise within this child. All children at times will experience big emotions but i felt having this knowledge about this particular child helped me prepare that they may experience big emotions and helped me gain and understanding of why this child may feel those emotions.

Module Links: I think this learning journal links well with the module Leadership skills for inclusive practice. In the Leadership skills for inclusive practice module poverty is mentioned and child poverty is mentioned. the link between the journal and module would be homelessness. In the module there was a reflection area and one of the questions was "parents in living in poverty are often classed as 'hard to reach parents'; why do you think this is?. i wanted to mention this question as i feel this is not true in my experience, in my experience parents living in poverty are easier tom reach as i feel they want support and need support, providing a better educator and parent relationship.

Module: Leadership for inclusive practice.

Key Learning: I learned and understood the child better after this conversation with the parent,I was aware big emotions may arise and understood why they may arise.

I have learned parents living in poverty are not 'hard to reach parents' in my experience.

I have also learned everyone deserves the same start in life no matter what their background is.

Reflective Learning Logs

Reflective Learning Log 3

Setting Type: Full time

Setting Context: Drop off, Classroom.

Timeframe: over a few days.

Entry: One day a child in the setting appeared unwell and had diarrhoea 3 times in the day. I had to call the parent of this child and ask the parent to come collect the child early this day, I also explained to the parent the child can not return for 48 hours after their last diarrhoea incident. This is in line with the settings Illness policy/ Infection control.

Two days later the parent showed up with the child at the door, It had not been 48 hours yet as the last know spout of diarrhoea known to me was later afternoon. I had to turn the child away at the door to ensure our Illness policy was being followed correctly. At the door I explained to the parent it had not yet been 48 hours since the child's last spout of diarrhoea and we can not let the child participate at this moment in time as this is the Illness policy and to control any infections.

I remember the child appearing unhappy and this had made me feel quite sad for the child.

I reflected on this afterwards and thought about this child's feelings, I wondered if i had not explained the policy correctly to the parent or if I was wrong in this time?

After further reflection I thought I had explained this quite well to the parents, I hoped the parent had explained this to the child effectively as i would not like the child to feel unwanted in their school environment.

Module Links: I think this learning journal links to my module Childhood in society, as I wondered about how the child in this situation felt and how this may have effected this child on the day and the overall well being of the child.

I hoped the child had the situation explained to them effectively by the parent as i wouldn't want the child to feel excluded from the community.

Module: Childhood in Society.

Key Learning: Ensuring the policies in the setting are correctly explained to parents.

Explain to the child myself at the door so I know the child is aware of why they can not come into school on the day.

Reflective Learning Log 4

Setting Type: Fulltime

Setting Context: Classroom Envoirnment

Timeframe: Continious

Entry: There are some children in the setting who struggle with their verabal communication.

The staff in the setting use differnt stratigies to help suppport the development of the childrens verbal communication, such as flashcards, the educators use the flashcards in circle time with the children to encourage the children's use of words. The flashcards help some children's verbal communication very well and helps the children's words come along very well when used correctly and effectively by the educators in the room.

For some children this strategy may not be as effective for their verbal communication. Some children may need extra support in this area of development. AIM support may be helpful for children needing extra support, If a child has AIM support, this may allow some 1 to 1 time or even smaller group activities, ensuring the children who may need extra support in this area are receving it. Smaller group activities allow for meaningful conversations and can be an opportunity for use of the flashcards, ensuring extra supports are put in place for children who may need ensures equity in the environment.

Module Links: I think this learning journal links well with the module Leadership for inclusive practice. Ensuring all children are included by creating strategys to invlove equity ensures all children are allowed the same oppurtunites to grow to their fullest potential.

Module: Leadership skills for inclusive practice.

Key Learning: Ensuring all children are treated equally is important but ensuring all children are given the extra supports to grow and develop to their fullest potential is also important.

Reflective Learning Logs

Reflective Learning Log 5

Setting Type: Full time

Setting Context: Afternoon, Relaxation time.

Timeframe: Relaxation time, one afternoon.

Entry: One day at relaxation time a little boy in the setting began to play with a baby doll, he sat nicely with the doll and gave the doll hugs, he was saying the doll was his little brother, This sparked a conversation between myself and the child and i asked him if he had any siblings at home, the child said he did, this left me confused as i did not think this child did have any siblings, the more we spoke about this topic, I asked the child gain if he had siblings, this time he replied saying no, not at home and began to refer to the baby doll as his little brother once again. I then asked the little boy if he wanted to have a little sibling and he said yes, he began to express how he would like to have someone to play with at home and he wished this was a little brother.

Module Links: I think this learning journal links well with the module Childhood in society as in one of out tutor calls, our tutor began to speak about Social 'norms" and how some people may think only girls can play with baby dolls, this reminded me of this situation with the child in my setting and encourged me to think about many other times or reasons children may incorperate baby dolls it to their play.

Module: Childhood in Society

Key Learning: Engaging in conversation with this child allowed me to understand his play, feelings and gave the child an output to express his feelings on the topic of having a sibling. In society people may think baby dolls are only for girls when in reality any one can play with them. In this situation the child expressed his want for a sibling by using the doll in his play as an output for this