Creating a safe learning space

Teachers all over the world spend a great deal of time setting up the physical environments of their spaces at the beginning of each new school year. And so they should. Things like room arrangement, access to materials, colour, texture, storage and furniture choice are critical elements to creating an environment rich in learning opportunities. However, less thought is sometimes given to the emotional environment created by the choices teachers make. For optimal learning, we need to create an emotional climate where each person feels safe and secure, where they will feel they can take risks and try new things and therefore learn. St Andrew’s School, in Adelaide, South Australia, participated in a professional learning project over the course of a year, which explored ways to give careful consideration and make specific plans for:

• building relationships
• establishing trust and security
• creating a sense of belonging.

Building relationships

A place to sit and build relationships. Photographs of children in frames build the identity of space.

Reflective teachers make time to build relationships with their children. They understand that to feel secure at school, each child needs to feel a sense of belonging and knowing. Some ways teachers are intentional in building relationships include:

1. Create a daily journal or diary of experiences at their early learning centre or school. For busy working families, this might be the only chance they get to see inside their child’s day and therefore be able to hold meaningful conversations with their child. It also connects families with teachers, acting as a bridge and a facilitator of conversation between a child’s major educators and carers.

2. Make spaces for quiet moments where two or three people – adults and children – can sit, talk and listen to each other.

3. Ensure the environment provides time for listening to each other. Beware the “teaching to the clock” syndrome where the day is fast paced and hectic. Slow it down (like the “Slow Food” movement!) and follow the learners more than the clock.

Daily journal placed near sign in sheet for caregivers to see each day

Children’s images proclaim ‘We live here!’

Lavender welcomes us to the Lavender Room

Trust and security

The beginning of each day is a critical time for establishing a climate of trust and security for young learners and their carers. The way a teacher greets each child and caregiver as they arrive at school can have an enormous impact on the rest of the day and on how the child sees his or her place in the classroom. Thinking about the start of the day as a transition time, helps teachers to be more aware of giving children the time they need to make the jump from home or bus ride or cafeteria breakfast to classroom.

• Play soft music to create a peaceful atmosphere and give a message about how to be in a space.
• Teach and practice strong routines at the beginning of the year, and then revisit them during the year to give children a predictable environment.
• Create transition periods for arrival and departure times, rather than specific ‘school start’ and ‘home’ times. For example, instead of stating ‘arrive at school at 9:00 am’, communicate to families that arrival is between 8:45 and 9:00am. This gives a period of time to transition, where a teacher may have one or two extra minutes to give to a child and his/her family, to greet and welcome them or to find out what may be bothering a child. It builds relationships of trust and security. Each child knows they belong here, they are special to the group and they have someone significant who will listen to them.

Creating a sense of belonging

In order to feel safe in an environment, it helps to feel that you belong there.  Learning environments can communicate a sense of belonging by ensuring the child’s identity is clear and strong. This could be done in the following ways.

• Displaying children’s images and their names in the learning environment, especially near the entrance. Doing so allows the space to proclaim, ‘These are the people who live here!’.
• Displaying children’s work in thoughtful and careful ways that gives value to them.
• Creating special places for items of cultural significance to families, such as a weaving from Guatemala or a rice basket from Laos. Feeling a sense of belonging will support families to be involved in their child’s learning environment.

• Displaying photographs of children and their families.
• Using children’s and parent’s words to highlight artworks, creations and photographs of learning experiences. Enlarge these words to give them more importance, and make sure the speaker’s name is included to respect their ideas.  One or two quotes from children and parents can lift a display of learning to new heights and also spark curiosity from the readers and viewers.

The physical environment communicates powerful messages about how to act and what is valued in a space. It is important to think about your values and ask how these are shown in the environment. It is also essential to consider scheduling or timetabling as part of the environment, and to create a tone or pace where learners have time to explore, question, figure out, and make connections through their interactions with materials and each other.

* With thanks to St Andrew’s School for the use of photographs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ms Lisa Burman is an education consultant currently working in Australia and New York (see: http://lisaburman.com.au/main/page_home.html). Her interests include early childhood education, play, early literacy learning, challenging and enriching indoor and outdoor learning environments and building schools as learning communities. Her first book was recently published by Redleaf Press and is titled, Are you listening? Fostering conversations that help young children learn.

 

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