What is the key person approach?
A key person approach is a way to ensure that all children and families have one or more persons within the setting with whom they have a special, nurturing relationship. The presence of a key person helps the child to feel emotionally secure when away from home and provides a reassuring point of contact for parents.
Who introduced the key person approach?
Elinor Goldschmied
More recently, Elinor Goldschmied and others have pioneered the Key Person Approach, which advocates the forming of special relationships between adults and children in the nursery setting.
What was Elinor Goldschmied theory?
If a child has one particular adult with whom they can develop a positive relationship during their time away from family, such as in the nursery, then their stay is less traumatic and their play and learned behaviours become more positive.
What does the EYFS say about key person?
The EYFS statutory framework states: The key person must help ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person must seek to engage and support parents and carers in guiding their child’s development at home.
What are the roles and responsibilities of a key person?
The key person is an important role model for the child who they can relate to and rely on. The key person observes your child to identify how they learn through their play, their next aspect of development, what their interests are and whether there is any cause for concern or need for extra support.
What skills does a key person need?
Beyond vocational skills and competence, individual key persons require personal characteristics of empathy, patience and genuine concern, as well as knowledge of child development (particularly attachment and transition) and how interventions impact differently on each child.
How does Bowlby’s theory influence the key person approach?
Bowlbys theory of attachment had a major influence on practice and has now been developed into the key person within settings. A key person was developed so that babies and young children can make the transition of their attachment from primary ca. John Bowlby John Bowlby developed the attachment theory.
Why is the key person approach important?
What did Margaret McMillan believe?
McMillan was of the belief that children learn by exploring and that they could achieve their potential through active learning and a first-hand experience.
What is the role of a key person in a nursery?
In order to ensure every child in the nursery is given the appropriate level of attention and care, a key person is appointed for each child. A key person is a named member of staff assigned to an individual child to support their development and act as the key point of contact with that child’s parents or carers.
How can I be a good key worker?
Important skills and attributes for key workers: The most important skills of a key worker identified by TM partnership leads are communication skills, empathy and compassion, experience of working with young people, followed by patience and resilience (such as the capacity to manage difficult situations).
What’s the role of a key person?
How does a key person support a child’s development?
How is Bowlby’s theory used in practice?
Bowlby’s attachment theory states that closed relationships between humans are biologically necessary and governed by primitive mechanisms shared by other mammals. For healthy psychological development, Bowlby claimed, a special relationship is needed between babies and carers.
How does the key person approach support cognitive development?
A key person provides individual, tailored care to every child assigned to them. From an early age, it’s important for a child to develop key cognitive skills like confidence and social interaction, and this person offers nursery school children a place where learning can be performed in a safe and trusting way.
What is Margaret and Rachel McMillan theory?
Rachel and Margaret shared a view that attendance at nursery schools such as theirs would prepare all children ‘for a much easier and more rapid advance than is the average child of today’. They believed that nurseries such as theirs would transform the education system ‘powerfully and very rapidly’.
What was Margaret McMillan known for?
McMillan invented the term nursery school so that children would be nurtured via a daily inspection, outdoor learning, play, and healthy, balanced nutrition. She wanted to establish a method for educating young children that combined all these elements with well-trained teachers.
What should a key person do?
The key person will be your first point of contact with the nursery or pre-school, and is also responsible for exchanging information with you. You will get verbal updates most days, and regular written summaries about how well your child is progressing in their learning and development.
What are the four characteristics of Bowlby’s attachment theory?
There are four basic characteristics that basically give us a clear view of what attachment really is. They include a safe heaven, a secure base, proximity maintenance and separation distress. These four attributes are very evident in the relationship between a child and his caregiver.
What was Margaret McMillan approach?
Margaret McMillan (1860 – 1931) McMillan adopted an holistic approach towards the education of children. She pioneered the need to understand the importance of caring for, and educating, the whole child within the context of their social and economic circumstances, all of which must be underpinned by sound health.