About Our Preschool

HFC Foundational Approach to Working with Children

At our school, we want to be fair, consistent and friendly with all of our students.  Over the years, we have developed our unique take on behavior management and interaction with children.  Positive Behavior Guidance is a technique that respects all students as individuals. We identify that students will make many mistakes; these are opportunities to learn and not be emphasized as failures by the child.

Relationships and consistency are paramount when interacting with students.  We believe our behavior guidance policy is to follow the expectation of fairness and respect when interacting with children. The goal is to establish and maintain positive relationships with the students and teachers. We use a two-choice system directed by the teacher. The choices must be safe and non-punitive. Allowing students to have input in the decision-making process allows for less conflict and power-struggle scenarios. Ex: It’s time to wash our hands. Would you like to do it by yourself or with my help? If a child refuses to answer then they are automatically choosing your help. You can remind them that next time we hope they will choose to do it on their own. If they make a choice let them know, “great choice!”

Students are fallible and will make many different choices that may result in mistakes. This is not failure, but an opportunity to learn; not a time to use corrective action to punish. Students are not forced to do anything; they are given choices and we respect their decision. When a child is not ready to make a decision on their own, we give them time with a teacher.  We help them by allowing teachers to work with them one-on-one, and if the connections are not being made, switching with other teachers to see if they can connect and bridge the relationship. We use “tools in our tool boxes” but sometimes we exceed all of our tools and then turn to the child’s parents/caregivers to help. This sometimes results in families needing some outside resources. 

Like the many children we serve, there will be a myriad of potential situations that staff will have to adapt to in a moment’s notice due to each individual. We also acknowledge that we cannot predict every outcome of the interaction between teachers and students. With that being said, our goal is to always be firm, fair and friendly, offering two choices, and treating students with dignity and respect.  When adults create environments that respect each individual child, they set forth a message that the world is a warm, friendly learning place. We ask questions to get the child to describe the event in his/her own words.

Three Questions HFC uses when Problem Solving and Debriefing with Students:

1. What were you doing?  
2. What should you be doing?  
3. When are you ready to begin?