'Nurturing children through an inclusive and diverse lens'
Aaron Bradbury, principal lecturer for Childhood and Early Years at Nottingham Trent University
Friday, January 28, 2022
Aaron Bradbury explains how his upcoming event focusing on LGBTQ+ children and families will help practitioners to gain the voice of the child and support their inclusive practice.
For me, to develop a holistic approach to love and nurturing is to start with child development and ourselves.
Who decides on what is right and wrong, what should be taught to our children – thereby questioning the power balance which we have within our settings?
This alone can cause many issues when it comes to stifling children’s development. It needs to start with the child being loved, becoming empowered and then inside themselves being ready to learn within that environment.
We need to look at the ‘why’ and the reasoning behind our own actions in our role. Are we seeking the voice of the child and truly advocating for uniqueness in all that we do?
Children quickly pick up on whether their environment represents them – or not. Representing the voice of every child is crucial for learning and development, and that’s why it’s so important to get to know your parents or carers who identify as LGBTQ+.
It is important to consider the following questions:
- What is your current curriculum and delivery of LGBTQ+ awareness?
- How often do you discuss this?
- What resources do you have that show same-sex families?
- Is your delivery merely a gesture, or is it embedded within your ethos and culture?
With this in mind, my upcoming session for Early Education's Midlands branch event will focus on the Unique Child.
Exploring the word, the context, and links to how Birth to Five Matters guidance for the EYFS supports this and can mean something when looking at the child through a lens of inclusion and diversity.
The session will focus primarily on children and families who are from the LGBTQ+ community. How are we gaining the voices of the child when it comes to representation within our Early Years settings?
There will be a range of takeaway ideas on how to achieve some of this when working within your setting and flipping the narrative and position of our own practices when it comes to our early years environments.
This will be an opportunity for practitioners to further develop their inclusive environment, by reflecting on their own provision. To book your place visit here
