Introduction

This project was undertaken by 9 participants over 3 groups. I focused my project on how to include Froebelian Principles within our policies. I wanted to look at how we involve families creating and reviewing policies. Our aim is for families to be actively involved in all aspects of our Centre. Having strong Froebelian beliefs we felt it was important to have their voice included in all our policies.

“Today the most urgent need in education is that the school should be united with the life of home and family”. (Froebel, in Lilley, 1967)

Context

As we embarked on our Froebel Flagship Journey I reflected on how we previously involved parents in reviewing our policies. The purpose of this was to get families actively involved in the policy-creating process as previous participation was low. We would ask parents to read our updated policies and provide feedback, this was done with limited conversation.

When deciding on my research project I was passionate about choosing to look further into the policy-creating process with our families and how we can incorporate the Froebelian Principles. As an Early Years Officer my current role has been limited involvement in reviewing policies and I have not had the opportunity to lead or fully influence policy writing. I would like to change this practice, giving more autonomy to all practitioners as this aligns with living our settings vision, values and principles.

“Froebel believed that the educators primary concern must be the growth of relationships” (Froebel in Lilley, 1967

I had to ensure that I gathered a broad perspective of views including children, parents and staff. It was important to find creative methods which would support young children in contributing their views.

Involvement of parents in our policy reviews was previously limited. On reflection we see this as a gap in our partnership with parents. We took time to consider which policy we would start with and what questions would give them confidence to express their views. We gave them a copy of the Froebelian Principles which we discussed during our focus group.

Through discussion and reflection, we identified that not all practitioners realise the importance of their views when we are creating & reviewing policies. It was decided we would support their understanding of the process of creating and reviewing policies. We had not previously linked the Froebelian principles, but we now realise the importance of doing so.

Ethics

My research was to look at how we include Froebelian Principles into our policies with the first focus on ‘Working in partnership with families’. On consideration of my research title I do not foresee there being any negative repercussions. I explained to all participants how I would share any photographs that were taken and any contributions they made through discussions and made sure that all participants understood that anonymity was ensured to them all unless a safeguarding issue arose. I made sure that all participants understood that they could freely withdraw consent at any time during the research project if they wished to do so. I also explained that the discussions being held would remain confidential within the focus groups and not discussed out with this safe space. By having these previous discussions, I felt that it made the focus groups more interactive as everyone seemed relaxed and able to openly express their opinions.