Philosophy

Phi­los­o­phy ques­tions the expe­ri­ences of every­day life for both chil­dren and adults. Our aim is to encour­age ratio­nal think­ing in a calm and reflec­tive envi­ron­ment where everyone’s views are heard, respected and val­ued in a gen­uine spirit of inclusion.

It is a cul­ture where chil­dren and adults learn together and where ideas are dis­cussed in a shared dia­logue. Phi­los­o­phy inspires chil­dren to think for them­selves whilst at the same time enables them to think with oth­ers. It pro­motes an emo­tion­ally lit­er­ate com­mu­nity pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren to ful­fil them­selves, grow in con­fi­dence and think creatively.

Teach­ing staff work with small groups of chil­dren, facil­i­tat­ing dis­cus­sion and doc­u­ment­ing children’s talk.

Why Phi­los­o­phy?

• Pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren to talk in the con­text of a ‘lis­ten­ing culture’.
• Enables chil­dren to respect the ideas and thoughts of others.
• Encour­ages and enriches a col­lab­o­ra­tive and cre­ative approach to learning.
• Allows a forum for dis­cus­sion so chil­dren can ask ques­tions and prob­lem solve with dif­fer­ent con­texts to express themselves.
• Gives chil­dren time to explore what is impor­tant to them.
• Respects the belief of chil­dren and adults as being equal learners.
• Helps chil­dren under­stand why they have their own indi­vid­ual views of the world.
• Col­lab­o­rate and engage with those who are dif­fer­ent from themselves.

How we facil­i­tate phi­los­o­phy at Greenfields

Children’s views are embraced in a lis­ten­ing cul­ture where they can dis­cuss and exchange their ideas. Project work enables chil­dren and adults to con­struct qual­ity rela­tion­ships through a process of philo­soph­i­cal think­ing dur­ing the nurs­ery session.

At group time there are oppor­tu­ni­ties for some six chil­dren to focus and extend aspects of their think­ing with two adults. One adult engages the chil­dren in dia­logue whilst the other care­fully doc­u­ments their views and expe­ri­ences. Teach­ers and nurs­ery nurses are both actively involved in ques­tion­ing and doc­u­ment­ing children’s thoughts.

A per­spec­tive from a nurs­ery nurse involved in philosophy

“Being involved in phi­los­o­phy has impacted on my own per­sonal devel­op­ment in the under­stand­ing of how chil­dren think and learn. It is impor­tant to give chil­dren oppor­tu­ni­ties for time and space to develop their think­ing, share ideas, talk within a group and lis­ten to what their peers have to say. It has also made me aware that phi­los­o­phy does not only have to be in a phi­los­o­phy ses­sion but that it can also be gen­er­ated through all areas of the cur­ricu­lum, both indoors and out­doors. Most of all it is impor­tant to lis­ten to the children.”

Some thoughts from chil­dren aged 3 – 4

Adult: “What Is magic?”
Nikhil: “It is power. I’ve got magic! It is here, It is nice and soft! (hand open)
Selin­der: “I got magic in my brain, I’ve got a bone in my brain.”
Nikhil: “My magic makes me fly.”
Sasha: “When you put glit­ter on it and the sun is on it they start twin­kling like stars, you know like stars in the night. Thun­der and light­ning come down, this is the clouds, like is the rain com­ing down, no thun­der and light­ning and I want to use these to make puddles.”

Using sto­ries for thinking

Sto­ries are a use­ful resource and pro­vide chil­dren with pos­si­bil­i­ties and chal­lenges and offer many metaphors in life. Read­ing a story to chil­dren can stim­u­late their think­ing and inspire their curios­ity. Chil­dren can respond to a story using their emo­tions and this can often be a cat­a­lyst for talk­ing about their own per­sonal experiences.

June McHugh