From Sara, Deputy Manager

Let’s talk mental health and wellbeing. These past 12 months have impacted us all in some way, which in turn has made us all stop, think, be kind. 

Here at Banana Moon Lower Sundon, we pride ourselves on having a supportive and positive management team where the team are aware that “our door is always open and our ears are ready to listen” - with the occasional pizza or cream egg to lift our teams spirits (the way to all our hearts is through our tummies haha!).

We have strong system in place to ensure a member of management is there to support the teams with their weekly room tasks, and that everyone is given a chance to reflect. Bettering our practice is so important, learning from each other and embedding our culture of teaching, and ethos of learning for all of us.

Our mantra will always be that the children come first, so worries aside, the team focus will be on what we do best, and that is having a safe and stimulating environment for the children in our care to be nurtured and encouraged.

We set a wonderful task out for our team this week, where every child had a series of 30 minute one to one sessions with a member of their room team. The team were asked to follow the child’s lead and just go with the flow: if child A wanted to go to the beach, we would do our best to create a beach, or if child B wanted to ride an elephant the staff had to think outside the box and deliver. 

The aim was to remind us of the power of play. It makes us all stop and think about what the children like, enjoy and how the child can lead wonderful play experiences and learning. We as practitioners got so much out of this, allowing ourselves to focus on just one child, and in so doing enticing in other children interested in the direction of play, so engaging as well; and we found how therapeutic it is to just sit, play and listen to the amazing imagination of our small people. In such anxious times, reminding of us of why we’re here is so important.

After a difficult turnaround on vaccines, this week there has been a national celebration and large emphasis on the outstanding efforts of early years educators, who have provided essential stability and support to families throughout the pandemic. On Thursday 18/02/21 people across the sector have been sharing a ‘thumbs up for early years’ to show their appreciation. This has been lovely to see early years getting a little shout out, so thank you for your thumbs!

#ThumbsUpForEarlyYears #ProtectEarlyYears #TestAllEarlyYearsWorkers #BeKind