Welcome to The Confident Team

After more than 22 years in early childhood education, I’ve learnt something about confidence.

Knowing the theory and feeling confident enough to put it into practice are two very different things.

You can have educators who know the frameworks, understand child development and care deeply about the children they work with.

And they can still struggle when a parent is upset.

Or when a child’s behaviour becomes challenging.

Or when they need to have a difficult conversation with a colleague.

Or when they simply don’t know what to say next.

As a centre manager or educational leader, you’re often the person helping them work through those moments.

That’s what The Confident Team is about.

Each week, I’ll share one practical idea you can use with your team.

Nothing complicated. No management theory for the sake of it.

Just practical things I’ve learnt from more than two decades working in early childhood education, mentoring educators and working alongside children and families.

Things you can discuss at a team meeting, use when coaching an educator or try in your centre the next day.

And I want to start with one of the most important things you can help your team get right.

Their relationships with families.

Ask your educators to think about the families they interact with regularly.

What do those families usually hear from them?

Is it:

“Morning.”

“Good day.”

“Ate well.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Or do they feel that the educator actually knows their child?

Because eventually, one of your educators is going to need to have a harder conversation.

Perhaps a child has been biting.

Perhaps there’s a concern about their development.

Perhaps something happened during the day that needs to be explained.

That conversation is very different when there’s already a relationship behind it.

So one of the simplest habits you can encourage across your team is:

Build the relationship before you need it.

This is something your educators can change tomorrow.

At pick up, instead of:

“Jackson had a great day today. He had a big lunch and didn’t want a rest.”

Try:

“Jackson spent almost twenty minutes building a massive, his word, tower out of magnetic blocks with Fred today. There was some pretty dramatic role play happening too.”

Now Jackson’s parent can picture part of his day.

They know somebody noticed him.

They have something they can ask him about when they get home.

And it takes very little extra time.

Some days in early childhood are completely bonkers.

By pick up time, an educator can genuinely be standing there thinking:

“What did Jackson actually do today?”

So encourage your team to capture the little things as they happen.

A funny comment.

Something a child spent a long time working on.

A new friendship.

Something they were proud of.

And encourage educators to share those observations with each other.

A parent should feel that the team knows their child, not just one educator.

Not every interaction with a family needs to be about education.

Your educators are people. Parents and carers are people.

They can talk about food. Sport. A television show. The weekend. Coffee. Whatever they happen to connect over.

Talk.

Listen.

Remember things.

Be interested.

These ordinary interactions can make the more important conversations easier because the relationship already exists.

And when something difficult does happen, your educator isn’t approaching a stranger with bad news.

There’s some trust to start from.

There are plenty of resources explaining what good early childhood practice looks like.

I want to focus on something slightly different.

How do you help your team actually do it?

What can you say?

What can you practise?

What can you discuss at your next team meeting?

What can an educator try tomorrow?

Every edition of The Confident Team will finish with something practical you can take back to your team.

So here’s the first one.

At your next team meeting, ask:

“What do families usually hear from us at pick up?”

Then give everyone a simple challenge.

Choose one family you don’t normally speak to very much.

Tomorrow, instead of:

“They had a good day.”

tell them one specific thing you noticed their child do.

Give them the detail.

Tell them the little story.

Then see where the conversation goes.

Sometimes a stronger relationship with a family starts with one really good conversation.

Louis Bell
Founder, Praxibel
The Confident Team