Improving Outcomes for Boys – Elm Cottage (Case Study)

WHEN A COURSE BLOWS YOUR MIND!

This blog has been written by Gemma McMillan (Early Years Teacher) and Sarah Costello (Preschool Lead) who work at Elm Cottage Private Day Nursery Brookfields in Cheadle. They are a large setting with around 30 staff and look after children from six months old to school age. They recently attended the 3 x Bright Futures Northwest Stronger Practice Hub ‘Improving Outcomes for Boys’ training sessions which were delivered by Andy Burt. They describe in their own words their experiences of attending the sessions and the impact this then had on both  their own practice and also the wider setting …

Initially we had limited expectations from the training and we were hoping to just gain a few ideas which we could bring back to the setting. However, as the course went on, we became more and more enthusiastic, and completely fascinated by what Andy had to say. Within the first session, we enjoyed hearing Andy’s experiences of working with boys and hearing about what actually works well in practice to engage them. This included open spaces and knee slides, which were something that definitely sprung to our minds when thinking about children from our setting. Andy explained how boys typically engage well in the construction area and the outdoors. Straight away, this gave us lots of food for thought for how we could use these areas more effectively within our setting.

Secondly, Andy then explained the science behind schematic play and how neurological pathways are formed as part of brain development. He brought to light the nature vs nurture debate and explained how, as practitioners, we often can stereotype how we might expect boys to behave, such as being ‘loud’, ‘boisterous’ and behaving like ‘cheeky chappies’. This made us consider the wider social impact on such young children and led up to really reflect on why boys in particular might display certain behaviours. We also really thought about the significant gender gap in achievement between boys and girls which is already established at the point of starting school.

After the initial session, we all came away raring to go and couldn’t wait to get back to nursery and share our learning with the rest of our team!

Time to reflect

Based on what we learned on the training, we started off by beginning to reflect on how this related to our own setting and practices. We currently work with a big cohort of boys who often love to run, jump, climb and knee slide at every given opportunity. However, we realised that we often spent a lot of time trying to discourage these behaviours and sometimes became overwhelmed by the ‘stampede’ which appeared at the back door when children were ‘released’ into the garden when transitioning from indoor to outdoor play.

The course really made us reflect on what our boys really needed and how they learn best, thus giving us our first (of many) ‘lightbulb’ moments. This helped us to make lots of positive changes to the indoor learning environment, which were successful in promoting our boys’ learning. We firstly started off by making one small change – creating a new loose parts area linked to our boys’ interests and positioning it in a way that prevented the ‘dancefloor’ effect (seeing a large open space as a place to run and not engage with the resources there) which was previously happening in our room.

Next, we focused on the construction area, making it less cluttered and considering quality resources over quantity. This area then became more valued by the children who loved to use it. We provided a space for the children to display their small models which really promoted self-confidenc. This also gave them opportunities to purposeful mark-make as the children were eager to practise labelling their models. Tidying up also became easier for them to achieve independently as a result of labelling the shelves with photos of the resources.

Sharing our knowledge

Being a larger setting, we were trying to think of the most effective way to deliver the information so that it had low impact on already limited staff time. We really wanted to ‘motivate the unmotivated’ and decided that a training video may be the best way to get all the key messages across. Filming the video proved to be a very humorous morning with more laughing outtakes than serious moments at times. However, after several (if not thousands) of bloopers, we managed to film the content of our video and asked our ‘computer expert’ to compile a final video. Afterwards, we sent out the training video out to staff, alongside some questions for them to answer at the end. This method had mixed results as about half of the staff watched and answered and the other half needed lots of reminders. But we then took it upon ourselves to support the different rooms in our settings to make sure that all the messages from the training were understood by everyone.

Andy Burt part 2

After attending the second session with Andy Burt, we, yet again left inspired, motivated and ready to make even more changes within our setting. We were ‘wowed’ by the different resources that were set up in the venue, bringing to life how each provision area (indoors and outdoors) could be enhanced to maximise boys’ engagement. We did get a little snap happy as we wanted to share these ideas with the rest of our team. Andy focused on the outdoor environment and how we should think of play on a larger scale, using resources which are resilient and weather friendly, including exciting loose part materials. Most importantly, not just bringing out the ‘old dusty duplo’ so children could just get their yearly dose of vitamin D, making outdoor experiences rich and maeningful.  Andy really emphasised that the level of planning for provision needs to be equal to indoors, and children’s learning experiences varied to reflect the opportunities available within each environment.

The help make this more manageable, Andy suggested that we firstly focus on developing three areas in the outdoors. Rather than attempting to develop lots of different areas at once (with the risk of these being half finished), we made sure that these selected areas were done right. We decided to choose construction, water and mark-making as these areas already interested our boys and provided us with lots of opportunities to further extend their play. When we got back to our setting, we first began discussing our options around making both initial and long-term changes.

Changes we made

Sarah’s mind was already whirling with creating potential garden blueprint plans. Our initial changes included swapping the water and the construction area, ensuring things were practical and accessible for the children. The result of this was a larger construction space for our tyres and wooden planks. Over the weekend we were able to source some flat bread crates from the ‘black market’ (or what is known as the local corner shop).

We then poached a ladder (which was usually just stored behind the sheds) in the hope that the handy man wouldn’t notice. We were able to place the ladder onto our tyres which allowed us to create different levels and different experiences for risk taking. This really developed the children’s self-confidence (as well as their gross motor skills) as they went from slowly crawling across the ladder to tiptoeing confidently across the rungs. The bread crates were then used to create enclosures to fit as little as two children or a larger enclosure for as many as ten. These made great ‘jails’ and ‘houses’ for children to explore. The bread crates were also used as stepping stones for almighty obstacle courses or when playing ‘the floor turns to lava’ type games.

As part of the changes, we also replaced the fixed cascading water stand with guttering, water stands and flexi-tubs to allow the children the independence and freedom to transport water around in the garden. Who knew our children could make the eighth wonder of the world – ‘The Elm Cottage Viaduct’ which took the whole the length of our garden space. We also replenished our resources so they had a wide selection of different sized jugs, tubs and pipes to make play even more fun and engaging. We had already made changes to our creative area and felt we were already on the right track with this, thus only a few minor changes were needed. We upcycled a pallet which has become a great resource stand for our creative resources – paint, large paintbrushes, chalks, etc.

Impact

Overall, we felt that the course was so inspiring and it significantly helped us to create lots of positive changes in our setting. It gave us the information needed which we could then take away to create an outstanding setting. The course was delivered ‘to the point’ and it provided clear and useful information. In our opinion, you could not leave each session being anything but completely driven to wanting to improve outcomes for boys.

The impact on the children was beautiful to see – the level of engagement increased and their teamwork and ideas flourished. Little did we know that one morning’s training would spark a journey which has created such a worthwhile, positive impact on our children. These small changes have given us the opportunity to create secure foundations for children’s future development. As enthusiastic practitioners, courses like these are widely beneficial in supporting our practice and the outcomes for our little ones. We look forward to more courses from Brighter Futures North West Stronger Practice Hubs!

(Please see the attached photos below which were the first ‘short term’ changes we made within the first week after the course).