Well-Being & Involvement

Well-Being & Involvement

At Bertie’s we are committed to providing an environment – inside and out - that supports children’s learning and development. To do this, the approach of ‘well-being and involvement’ underpins everything that we do and is our priority.

This approach originated in Belgium but it is widely used and respected in this country as well, especially in Kent – it is something that we are particularly known for and have advised other nursery settings on. Well-being and involvement are two strong indicators of quality that we use to tell us whether the environment that we are providing is meeting the needs of every child at Bertie’s.

It is based on the principle that when children have high levels of well-being (signs of feeling at ease, secure, contented and with self-confidence – like a ‘fish in water’) and involvement (signs of concentration, persistence and satisfaction) these are the best conditions for learning to take place.
We promote high levels of well-being and involvement in the following ways:
Working in partnership with parents to make sure that the settling-in process is successful and individual to each child;

Talking to parents about what interests their child at home and using that in our planning;

Encouraging discussions about a range of emotions;

Using a wide range of ‘real’ and open-ended resources such as real cutlery and utensils in the home corner and drainpipes outside – these promote deeper levels of play than plastic items;

Asking ourselves everyday ‘is it shiny?’ – meaning does Bertie’s look inviting, attractive and exciting for each child at every session so that they’ll be inspired to explore, create and investigate?

As a staff team, screening every child’s levels of well-being and involvement three times a year. If we have concerns about any child we are committed to discussing this with parents;

Asking parents to let us know if anything happens in a child’s home life that might affect their well-being.
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