Case Study - New employee educational pack

You have been appointed as the Educational Leader for a new service which has been operating for just over 12 months. You have been the Educational Leader since the service opened.

Occupancy is increasing and a number of new staff are going to join the team over the next few months.

The service leader has asked you to create a new employee educational pack to support their induction to the service. The pack will be focussed on their role as an educator and will ensure consistency of care and education approaches across the service.

The service leader has shared the below with you as the main objectives of the pack:

• to ensure the service is meeting requirements under the National Quality Framework including Standards, Regulations
• to ensure all staff have a sound knowledge of the Learning Framework and how the service uses it
• to ensure new staff understand our approach to play pedagogy and environmental design
• to ensure all educators can effectively observe children in line with The Service's approach and a range of observation tools
• to ensure everyone understands safety requirements around learning and play.

The service leader has written questions to support you to create the educational pack. When answering the questions, the service leader has encouraged you to answer in a way that will support the development of the pack.

Your service encourages all educators to have focus children and be involved in observing, planning for learning and implementing the curriculum (including environment set-up).

The service philosophy has the following points which are fundamental to their practice:

• We believe in a play-based curriculum with teaching and learning enhanced through fun and exploration.
• We believe children's development is enhanced through encouraging the learning dispositions of curiosity and discovery.
• We believe in a holistic approach to children's education and care to support their development in all domains.
• We believe our learning environment is fundamental to our teaching practice and see it as the 'third teacher.
• We believe in a strength-based approach to teaching, learning and documenting children's learning.

QUESTION 1

What is the learning framework used at the service and how is it used it to support educator practice?

QUESTION 2

Explain who is involved in the implementation of the learning framework including observing, planning, setting up play environments and reflecting on practice? Use the hierarchy structure to explain how they will be involved.

QUESTION3

Describe to the new educators what critical reflection is, how and why we use it and our expectations around meaningful reflection?

QUESTION4

How we embed the Learning Framework into our service including daily practice, routines and experiences.
Vision (Describe how the service embeds the vision. Detail at least three examples with one for each of the following:
daily practice experiences routines.)
Principles (Describe how the service embeds the Principles. Detail at least three examples with one for each of the following: daily practice experiences routines.)
Practices (Describe how the service embeds the practices. Detail at least three examples with one for each of the following: daily practice experiences routines.)

QUESTION5

Determine the service policies and procedures related to the below and complete the table for our new employees to understand an overview of requirements:

• educational program and practice
• health and safety
• physical environment
• relationships with children
• collaborative partnerships with families.

Collate these policies in the pack for the staff to have access to on day one of their induction.

Areas	List of relevant service Policies & Procedures	Summary of expectations of employees under the associated policies & procedures.
Educational Program & Practice
Health & Safety
Physical Environment
Relationships with children
Confidentiality and privacy
requirements related to planning for children
Collaborative partnerships with families

QUESTION 7

Prepare a 'how to' guide for the new educators about observations of children's learning. Answer the questions in the table below to provide an overview of how and why we observe children's learning. Remember to write for educators who are inexperienced and experienced.

'How to' guide for observing children's learning
List at least five different observation techniques and tools we use and describe why and how we use each technique/tool.
Meaningful documentation is important within our service. Describe how we gather meaningful observations of children including information for the new educators about all of the below to support them to adopt our approaches: What information we think is important to gather and why. Where we gather information from including primary and secondary sources. Our belief in a strengthbased approach to observations and why we believe this. Why we use subjective vs objective language wherever possible. A description of labelling in observations and why we avoid labelling.
When and why we use past and present tense. A description of bias and why we avoid it. Help them understand how they can avoid bias in observations.
Describe the information we gather from the below stakeholders and how we gather information: children families/carers and significant adults educators community other relevant professionals & who these are.
Detail the strategies we use to review and question the information we have gathered about children's needs and learning opportunities.
Explain how educators can be involved in collaborating with other educators about children's documentation and learning. Share with them the techniques we use for communication and how they can be involved in planning for children.

QUESTION 8

The service philosophy states, 'We believe in a play-based curriculum with teaching and learning enhanced through fun and exploration', Explain to the new educators what play-based pedagogy is and why it is valued so highly within service Philosophy.

QUESTION 9

Explain the play theories referred to when planning and reflecting on pedagogy. Provide at least two examples of play and learning theories used and how they guide practice.

QUESTION 10

Describe what is considered to be the features of a quality play experience including how to encourage children to become engaged in play and enhance their agency.

QUESTION 11

The service philosophy also states, "We believe our learning environment is fundamental to our teaching practice and see it as the 'third teacher'". Explain to the new educators what this means and cover the below points in the pack:

How to design and set up environments which are:

• safe and non-threatening (welcoming)
• culturally appropriate
• stimulating
• challenging
• promote a sense of wellbeing, belonging and inclusion.

QUESTION 12

Explain to the new educators how to modify the environment to support the age groups, interests, and abilities within all rooms.

QUESTION 13

Ensure the new team members understand the procedures around safety and minimising risk.

Detail how to manage risk assessments for learning environments and provide an example of a type of experience they might have to write a play area risk assessment for.