Key Person! Help

[Guest]

i work in a a day nursery open from 7.45am till 5.30pm monday to friday.

 

we have three rooms the daisies(0-18months)

the bluebells(18m-2.5years)

the sunflowers(2.5-4years)

 

we work on a key person system but have the dilema do you move with your key children all the way through from the baby room to the older room??? for us we are a small nursery with 7 staff and would find it difficult to keep moving staff around?? is anyone else in the same boat or have any ideas i would love to hear them

 

thanks

[beth1]

No I have not moved with my key children, I have passed all the information onto the next person who will be the keyworker for the older age room.

 

 

Beth

[Lucy P]

We are experiencing this dilemma too!

 

Currently staff do not move with their key children, but we are thinking that it may be more beneficial for the children if they do.

 

Our main concerns are this:

 

We would be taking a person out of a room who has valuable experience of working in the area - would it be fair to that area?

 

Do the children become more independant by moving to another key person?

 

I too would be glad for some opinions on this.

[Running Bunny]

I have never come across a nursery where staff move with their key children and can't really see how it would be possible unless you only had one intake a year - at what point would you move up with them?

 

The idea of the key person is to form a secure bond with a person other than their key carer to support their social, emotional and physical development. This is most critical in the baby room. Staff should carry out 'personal care routines' i.e. nappy changing, putting children to bed, being there when they wake up and feeding times as you will learn what suits them best and when they are tired, hungry, bored etc... That is not to say that they interact ONLY with the key person (as some people I have met had thought it worked!)

 

When children tend to move from the baby room (between 12 and 24 months) the need for an attachment is reducing, but not disappearing. A carefully planned transition which is supported by the existing and new key person will help the child to move rooms. Key person working is effective the whole way through a nursery, but allows children to develop new relationships according to their changing needs.

 

You really should read Key persons in the nursery by Peter Elfer, Elinor Goldschmeid and Dorothy Selleck as they set out beautifully what the key person approach is.

[Guest]

I have a pre-school, and I know it is slightly different because all our children are together, but those children who return to is in September have a different keyworker. They move from our rainbow group into the sunshine group and have a different member of staff for certain activities and small group time.

Linda

[Sue R]

In our daycare setting the children move to a new Keyperson in the new room. This makes sense to us, as it emphasises their development and supports their growing confidence. However, we are a small setting ( 51 place), where most children know most staff, as we 'dot about' a bit, such as when someone's sick, so it may be more difficult in a larger setting.

 

Good communication is the key - not forgetting the parents/carers, as they are moving rooms, too, in a sense!

 

Sue

[Guest]

thanks for you replys good information, i think sue R your key person system is exactly the same as us, we are a small nursery and the children get to know not just their key person but all the other staff as well .

[Guest DeborahF]

I think the "carefully planned transition" that Running Bunny talks about is central to the whole thing; as long as the transition is planned for effectively and dealt with sensitively then there should be few, if any, problems for the child and their family.