Reflection One - Relationships with Staff

STOP

I feel as though I have established strong relationships with staff at my centre. I have done this by interacting with staff right from when I started. I introduced myself when I first arrived so the staff knew who I was and why I am there. I feel this helped the other staff feel more comfortable with me being there because I explained to them. At first I was a bit shy, as this was a whole new experience for me, but I knew that to be happy in my new environment I would need to make an effort with the staff. After a few visits with just greetings and politeness, I began to maintain these new relationships with staff by having regular conversations with them about the children and also things such as “how was your weekend?” I.e. having professional and personal conversations. I also maintained these positive relationships with the staff members by proving to them that I am capable at looking after children myself and that I can have the initiative to lead my own activities.

THINK

I feel that I have been successful in establishing and maintaining relationships with staff because I feel very welcome and I know that the staff are comfortable with me. I feel like I belong in the centre because the other staff members take the time to interact with me and they also help me with my course assignments. I believe that if I had not been successful at making relationships with the staff, then they would not offer to help me with assignments. According to Te Whāriki "Adults working in Early Childhood education need to be... well supported by Management." (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.27) Because of how comfortable I am in my environment, I feel very supported by the management team. I’ve learnt that communication is the key to maintaining relationships because if staff do no talk to one another then they cannot get to know each other and be able to feel comfortable in the same environment.

CHANGE

In order to establish and maintain relationships with staff in the future, I would not change much of how I interacted in this scenario. However, as I said before, this was a completely new experience for me and so I was a bit shy in the beginning stages. I know that next time I enter into a new centre, I will not be so shy because I  know I have already done this before, and the way in which I approached making relationships with the staff last time was very successful.

References

Ministry of Education (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.