Case Study: Treehouse Nursery
Where young children's voices are heard
A range of different approaches based on children’s rights ensure young voices are heard.
Nazia Shabbir, RRSA Lead and CEO at Treehouse Nursery, explains the different approaches to making sure children’s rights are respected at this early years setting.
A focus on voice and sharing knowledge
Our journey towards becoming a Rights Respecting School began with our passion for ensuring children’s voices are heard. We are a Silver accredited Right Respecting Nursery since May 2024. To get started we attended training which gave us with valuable insights and strategies on how to communicate the importance of child participation to our community. We are committed to providing children in the early years with a strong foundation before they go to a primary school to enable them to become global citizens.
We wanted to educate everyone about the significance of children’s voices from an early age. We believed that by involving children as young as 2 years old in decision-making, we could empower them and foster a sense of ownership. To achieve this, we implemented various strategies such as having a steering group that involved children, parents and staff.
Babies as young as four months attend Treehouse Nursery and as they grow and develop they learn about their rights through our ‘My Rights are HEARD’ values. We share weekly rights and briefings with our parents and staff to learn and promote the CRC. We have new families joining us at all time and our stay and play sessions are a great opportunity for parents to talk to us about children’s rights. Our monthly newsletters to parents and staff contain lots of information around the Spotlight CPD resource. We continuously keep our teams and children aware of global affairs by sharing age appropriate news.
A shift in language and approach
We’ve adopted a holistic pedagogical approach to ensure children learn about their rights through our Children’s Voices curriculum. We believe that it’s essential to emphasise that children are right holders, while adults are the duty bearers using the rights vocabulary.
To reinforce this understanding, we’ve shifted our language and approach. We’ve replaced rules with charters, signalling a recognition of children’s rights. We hold regular discussions with the children about their safety and the responsibilities of those around them to further reinforce this message.
Our core books, which focus on making voices heard and speaking up to duty bearers, provide a powerful tool for teaching children about CRC. To promote inclusivity, we’ve placed family trees throughout our nursery, showcasing the diversity of family structures. We’ve also invited authors to read stories that celebrate different types of families. These initiatives help to educate children about the importance of acceptance and respect for all families.
Advice for other settings
- It’s important to make sure that everyone understands why CRC discussions are so important; we recommend ensuring that every member of staff is adequately equipped with rights knowledge and to share regular briefings and updates with parent.
- Make sure all your practice and policies are reviewed in line with children’s rights.
- Consider how the Convention and individual articles link into your curriculum and identify opportunities to discuss rights across relevant aspects of learning
School context: Treehouse Nursery School has been established since 1991 and is located in Wanstead, East London. We have three nurseries and one breakfast and after school club. Over 55% of children are eligible for the working families early years funding. 4% of our children are SEND and 20% of children are EAL.