The first few months and years of a baby's life are a critical window for brain development, shaping future health, wellbeing, learning and behaviour. Despite this, babies can sometimes be overlooked in busy settings.
Staff at Ambler Children's Centre in Islington, north London have worked hard to redesign their baby room and introduce a new approach and curriculum. ‘We wanted to create an attractive and richly resourced environment that was calm, safe and nurturing for the babies but also really promoted their development,’ explains head of Children's Centre Ciara Rush. ‘Babies do sometimes fall off the radar and sometimes it can become solely about the care routines – which of course are important; we also wanted to ensure our babies were best supported to develop their skills as well.’
WELCOMING ALL
Islington is a diverse London borough with areas of poverty and affluence and a mix of residents from various ethnic backgrounds, with many born outside the UK. As a result, the Children's Centre supports a wide range of families, including those with eligibility places because of complex needs and parental stresses. Up to 12 babies, aged from six months to two years old, are cared for in the baby room at a time.
During the redesign, staff thought about how parents could be helped to feel welcome and supported. The entrance area includes big arm chairs for them to sit and cuddle or feed their babies. Rush likens it to a ‘mini living room’ where parents and babies can slowly transition into the nursery day and chat to their key person. ‘Arguably, building relationships with parents from when their children are babies is even more important than in later childhood,’ she says. ‘Babies thrive on consistency and routine. The infant period is such a crucial period of development, and the foundation of these early relationships can have long-lasting impacts.’
While resources are different throughout the centre, depending on the age and needs of the children, the colour of paint – white and grey with a splash of colour to keep it calming – type of furnishings and materials used are consistent from the baby room through to the pre-school room. ‘We wanted to create an environment familiar to children as they moved between rooms,’ explains Rush. ‘Transitions can be anxiety-provoking, so we wanted to look at ways to mitigate the worry. The way we display the children's work is also the same. We've taken down all display boards, and children's work goes up in its purest form, as we want the environment to really belong to the children.’
Baby room lead Eva Long adds, ‘We thought about how the room looks and feels, but also how it smells. We've got diffusers with essential oils to make it smell nice and calm.’
The room has low lighting and lots of natural light. Underfloor heating makes it comfortable for children to lie, roll and crawl and for staff to be on the ground with them. Wicker pods have been provided for babies to independently access for privacy and quiet, along with material to cover themselves.
‘We see our babies as independent, able and curious, and we encourage them to be so,’ says Long. This includes giving them access to low-level shelving and storage so they can get their own toys, books, shoes and coats. Staff support children to feed themselves at mealtimes and there is an adjoining sleep room that babies can access whenever they need.
A store cupboard has been repurposed as a milk kitchen and a hatch into the baby room knocked through so formula and breast milk is readily accessible to staff.
A CURRICULUM
Baby room staff followed the EYFS, but Rush says the curriculum was ‘kind of non-existent’ before the redevelopment. ‘It's still very much child-led, but we have now written a curriculum for the baby room so there is a framework to follow that's all focused around 12 core books,’ she says (see panel). ‘We have carefully identified books that are appropriate for their stage of development. We have really looked at the books' characters and stories to make sure they represent the diversity of children we have. We also wanted them to have lots of very simple language, strong rhyme and rhythm and lots of repeated refrains.’
Key concept planning is formed around the core books because staff recognise how much learning can be gained from a well-chosen, quality book – linking to activities, going on trips and welcoming external visitors to bring the learning alive.
Rush emphasises that they want to instil a love of reading and good reading habits from the start. ‘We have a strong focus on reading because we know it's one of the most important skills children can have which contributes to their overall happiness and success,’ she says. ‘Although the babies aren't reading, they are turning pages, they're pointing and they're interested in books.’ Every baby takes home a reading pack each week to support early reading habits. Encouraging parents to read with their children also boosts wellbeing by slowing down and sharing an enjoyable activity, which strengthens bonds and promotes emotional and social skills. Sharing books can also promote positive sleep routines.
‘After sharing Hooray for Fish! at nursery, one parent said they'd been to the aquarium,’ says Long. ‘It's really nice when the learning at nursery is continued at home.’
At the end of each day, staff meet to discuss what the babies have been doing and what they have responded to. That insight is used to inform the next day's planning. ‘It's a hybrid model where it's not just all child-initiated learning, because there are certain things that babies are not going to do spontaneously and we need to bring that learning to them,’ explains Rush. ‘For example, we need to bring certain language to them from stories and songs so they're hearing a rich range of vocabulary. We also need to bring them a range of open-ended resources so that they can find out about the world around them.’
THE BENEFITS
The redesign was completed a year ago and staff have seen many benefits, including the babies being confident to access resources and displaying feeling secure and having strong attachments with key workers and other staff in the room. ‘The babies are really calm, which I think is down to the environment,’ says Long. ‘I feel we've got the right level of resources, meaning there is enough for babies to do without being over-stimulated. We're in tune with their needs and their interests, and because we have daily staff meetings, we can respond quickly to children's interests so they are always engaged in something that they find enjoyable.’
She says staff also enjoy being at work. ‘We've come on a long journey – our understanding of child development, developing our practice for what's best for babies and tuning in to their needs. All of which we've embedded into our curriculum and environment,’ says Long. ‘Staff are happy and engaged, which means the children are too.’
CORE BOOKS
- B is for Baby by Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank
- Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins
- Lenny Has Lunch by Ken Wilson-Max
- Look at You! Wow! What a Body Can Do! by Kathy Henderson
- Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer
- Sometimes… by Emma Dodd
- Ten Tiny Babies by Karen Katz
- Walking Through the Jungle by Julie Lacome
- Where's Spot? by Eric Hill
- Who Said Moo? by Yi-Hsuan Wu
- Whose Knees are These? by Jabari Asim and Leuyen Pham
- Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood
