Stirling Council Childrens Services

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Stirling Council Childrens Services

• Small Voices .
• Powerful Messages

Learning Teaching Scotland Early Years
Conference 5 November 2005
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• Creation of Stirling Council 1996

• From the outset, commitment to and belief in the
  Importance of Listening to Children.
• Political Context
• Childrens Committee
• Policy Context
• Early Childhood
• Integrated Childrens Services

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• Creation of Stirling Council 1996

• Changing Political and Social Trends
• Key people in key positions shared a value
  base
• Strongly held principles
• Experience and Knowledge
• based understanding about children

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Case Studies from Children as Partners

• The Drum
• Curriculum Planning
• Amy and Darren

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• This shows
• The real challenges, the tussle between children
  and children children and adults.
• Exposes issues of Power.
• Working outside the comfort zone.
• Service and policy implications around
  leadership, support, responsibility.

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Two Key Outcomes

• 1) Pedagogy of Listening
• Values personal and professional
• Emotion Listening is emotion
• (of others and our own)
• Relationships action, reflection,
• learning, moral
• Connecting tuning in

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Two Key Outcomes

• 2) New insights and understandings about
  children and ourselves
• Amazement
• Compelled to know more
• The act of making listening more visible changed
  us as a Service
• Collective image of the child changed

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The Documentation Approach to Early Learning in
Stirling
A pedagogical approach to making childrens
early learning visible
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Case Study
Cats Poo
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Challenges, Impact, Implications

• Children
• more visible
• confidence
• Relationships
• Families
• Increased involvement
• More informed
• Relationships

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• Early Educators

• Deeper insights and understanding
• How and what children are learning
• Childrens interests, talents, abilities
• How to listen and to value listening

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Also,

• Tensions
• Anxieties
• Uncertainty
• Ethics