Program statement
LFN finds great inspirations from the following documents:
From that vast experience, Les Fanfans Nursery & Crèche has developed these primary educational objectives for its children.
Our Program Philosophy
We treat our children with respect and strive to instill within each of them as well as a love for learning. We provide each child with an environment that is safe, healthy and promotes learning.
- We believe that children learning by doing. We operate a developmentally appropriate program that provides each child with many large group, small group, and individual experiences to aid in their cognitive, physical, social, emotional development.
- We believe that the dedication of our teachers and their desire to provide a healthy environment allows our program to be successful. They are vital to our program and we provide them with all of the support they need to accomplish their mission.
- We believe that parents are the primary teachers and role models for their children. We strive to partner with ten and offer them guidance, encouragement, and support in nurturing their children to become responsible adults.
- We believe that we must all work together to teach our children how to behave appropriately. We guide the behavior of the children entrusted to us through positive methods such as modeling and helping them to learn the language necessary to express their feelings.
- Our greatest hope for ourselves and the children in our care is that we will set the example for them to follow to allow them to reach their highest potential.
Skills That Children Will Learn
Our Program Statement Framework
- Inclusive enriched childcare environment
- Honors and respects all children’s beliefs, culture, language, and experiences acquired from their family and community
- Promote health and well-being
- Foster the children’s exploration, play, and inquiry as a key goal
- Capture and document our practice as reinforcement of the learning
- Support all children’s ability to self-regulate, so children feel comfortable and confident
- Foster the children’s health and well-being indoors and outdoors
- Form trusting relationships with children and their families
- Provide everyone with a sense of belonging
- Children learn to: care about other people; understand other’s feelings; cooperate and share; to express their opinions; resolve conflicts; and develop self-competence, self-worth and self-regulation.
Our Plans of Action
The Plans of Action in each of these topic areas are the means to execute our strategies:
- Behaviour Guidance
- Communication and Extending Children’s Learning
- Menu and/or Snack Adaptations
- Food Substitutions
- Preparation, Handling and Transportation of Food
- Health and Safety Kitchen and/or Food Preparation Area
- Connecting and collaborating with local community and institutions
- Outdoor Playground environment
Our Strategies (approaches)
- Promote an environment which is healthy, safe, and supports general well being.
- Promote an environment which ensures good nutrition and safe food preparation.
- Support positive and responsive interactions.
- Encourage the children to interact and communicate.
- Foster exploration, play and inquiry.
- Provide child-initiated and adult-supported experiences.
- Plan for and create positive learning environments and experiences.
- Incorporate indoor and outdoor play, active play and quiet time.
- Foster the engagement of and communications with parents.
- Involve local community partners.
- Support others in relation to continuous professional learning.
Our Practices
All new staff on hiring, and all existing staff (annually) will acknowledge and review the following:
- Parent survey will be conducted annually to assess performance against the 11 key requirements.
- Internal Rating (AQI) for each Plan of Action will be conducted annually for each program.
- Undertake monthly staff meeting. Always include agenda item to discuss performance against the program statement and plan for improvement for next month.
- Each monthly staff meeting will, on a rotation basis, include on the agenda, one of the 11 key strategies to create the conditions promoted by the HDLH document. Staff will discuss and reflect on current practices against this strategy, and any opportunities for improvement will be captured.
- Undertake quarterly management/board meetings. Always include agenda item to discuss performance against the program statement and plan for improvement for next period.
- Gather together with staff annually to review and reflect on our performance and capture outcomes and set goals for the next period.
- Share “performance outcomes and goals review” with Board/Management and document and incorporate their feedback.
- Budget a professional development investment for each staff and align the professional development with the program statement needs.
- The annual employee performance review will include a self-assessment of the 11 key strategies to create the conditions promoted by the HDLH document. Staff will annotate the assessment with an example of each and identify goals for improvement for the next year.
Prohibited Practices
In accordance with the UAE Ministry of Education and The Department of Education and Knowledge, LFN staff will not engage in any of the following:
- Corporal punishment of the child.
- Depriving the child of basic needs including food, drink, shelter, sleep, toilet use, clothing or bedding.
- Inflicting any bodily harm on children including making children eat or drink against their will.
- Use of harsh or degrading measures or threats or use of derogatory language directed at or used in the presence of a child that would humiliate, shame or frighten the child or undermine his or her self-respect, dignity or self-worth.
- Locking the exits of the child care center premises for the purpose of confining the child, or confining the child in an area or room without adult supervision, unless such confinement occurs during an emergency and is required as part of the licensee’s emergency management policies and procedures.
- Physical restraint of the child, such as confining the child to a high chair, car seat, stroller or other device for the purposes of discipline or in lieu of supervision, unless the physical restraint is for the purpose of preventing a child from hurting himself, herself or someone else, and is used only as a last resort and only until the risk of injury is no longer imminent.
