Image of the Child - What does it mean?
Following our successful 'Image of the Child' exhibition, Marie Skelton (Head of Early Years) shares her thoughts on what the Image of the Child really means in early years education.
As a Reggio Emilia inspired nursery, we believe in supporting children to think for themselves. To our minds, the image of the child is one of competence, strength and being rich in potential. At 1st Place, our nurseries embrace creatively listening to our children, honouring their voice, celebrating community and strengthening democracy. We also value documentation and dialogue.
Over the years, I have witnessed many interactions and have enjoyed seeing how children become confident, critical thinkers. In the early days at 1st Place at Cambridge house, we had a young boy called Fabio. One day, Fabio came running in from the garden calling “Marie, Marie! There is a problem!”. I asked what the problem was and he replied that his hoop had got stuck up in the tree. “Oh dear, what shall we do?”, I asked. Fabio said, “Come outside and get it for me”.
The hoop and the tree
We went into the garden together and looked at the hoop high in the tree. “What shall I do?”, asked Fabio. “Reach up and get it down”, he added. I did as requested only to discover that I could not reach. “Oh, I can’t reach. What shall we do?”, I asked. “I know, I will get Simon. He is bigger than you”, Fabio said before running off to fetch another adult. I stayed with a small group of children discussing the problem and how it managed to get up there in the first place.
Fabio returned, followed by Simon. Fabio explained to Simon that he was making the hoop fly as high as it could and the hoop went up but it did not come down. Simon reached up and he could almost reach it but not quite. The children began to make suggestions such as Simon jumping up to get it and throwing a ball at it to knock it down. They tested their theories without success. Fabio then said “Let's try rocking the tree”. Fabio called his friends together and they surrounded the tree. He directed them to push, push! The tree began to rock gently and they noticed that the hoop was moving. Fabio stepped back and had a look. He then suggested that 2 children go on one side of the tree and 2 go on the other side. He called out "Push, push!". Then the hoop fell. The children all cheered and Fabio exclaimed “Yes, we done it!”.
Learning through real life experience
The children and I were involved in this activity for approximately 20 minutes. It would have been very easy for me to get a broom and hook down the hoop. However, I saw this as an opportunity to support and encourage critical thinking. The learning the children gained from this experience could not be manufactured - it was a real life experience. The level of engagement, the collaboration between the children and the satisfaction we all felt was fantastic. I learned a lot about Fabio during this experience. He is 10 years old now and has probably forgotten what happened but I am confident that the brain connections and the cognitive development made that day has stayed with him.