Positive Relationships
Babies and young children learn to be strong and independent through loving and secure relationships with parents and carers and other family members such as grandparents. When children are looked after outside the home they can develop security and independence through having a key person to care for them. Children’s learning is helped when they feel safe and secure and when their parents and the people in settings they attend work together to ensure that the child’s needs are met. A key person such as a childminder provides a reassuring link with home so that children can cope with being separated from the special people in their lives.
Attachments are the emotional bonds that are made between young children, their parents and other carers such as the Key Person. All of these important people have a special role to play in providing the right kind of environment for children where they will flourish. Environments are not just physical spaces because they are the atmosphere created through warm and caring relationships, where children are respected and valued and their well-being comes before anything else. In these environments children’s voices are listened to and they thrive socially and emotionally.
The Principles into Practice card on this page refers to the EYFS 2007, it is not linked to the Revised EYFS.
Positive Relationships: Respect