Settling In/ KP Approach

Settling In - Key Person Approach

If you choose to send your child to Bertie’s you’ll want to know that ultimately they are well cared for, that they feel safe and secure in their surroundings and that they are known well and listened to by the adults that they spend time with. At Bertie’s we know that the well-being of every child is far too important to be left to chance and we make every preparation to ensure that we get this right for every child.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, 2017) framework makes it a statutory requirement that each child is assigned a key person to “help ensure that every child’s care is tailored to meet their individual needs, to help the child become familiar with the setting, offer a settled relationship for the child and build a relationship with their parents”. The key person approach is therefore built on a sound understanding of the importance of attachments and a genuine commitment to forming positive relationships with children and their families.

At Bertie’s this means that each practitioner has the responsibility for building on their relationship with a small number of children and their families – your child’s key person will be the adult that they see at most, if not all, of their sessions. All Bertie’s practitioners will spend time with your child, but their key person will have more specific knowledge about their progress. If your child’s key person isn’t present for any reason (due to illness, training courses etc) your child will be allocated a ‘buddy’ to ensure that they still have a ‘special person’ available to them for that day.
When your child is offered a place at Bertie’s you will invited to our ‘open afternoon’ as well as given the opportunity to come along for as many informal visits before your start date as you’d like. When settling in your child’s key person will support you and your child through this process. We ask that you don’t leave your child until you both feel happy with the arrangement and your child feels secure enough with their key person or another practitioner to accept comfort from them, if necessary. There is no time limit on the settling-in process – it is individual to each child and their family. In our experience this is not a process that should be rushed and we aim to make small steps of progress if this is something that is difficult for a child/family.
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