Get your supervision active

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As an educator you need to be on your toes when watching, listening to and interacting with children of all ages.

Inadequate supervision often causes, or contributes to, serious incidents at early childhood services, whether it's during indoor or outdoor playtime, routines, transitions, excursions or on a bus.

Watch our video for more tips on supervision—from the team at Brady Bunch Early Learning Centre.

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Video transcript

Supervision is pretty much the core of early childhood. There is no time of the day where you're not supervising. It is the most basic, but most important, practice that there is in early childhood.

We take the design of the centre and our rooms into consideration when setting up learning activities.

It's really important to mentor the educators first of all so they understand the key priorities. We have our beautiful mango tree outside, and that requires somebody to be present and actively involved. Whereas there are different activities that the children may be able to do with a little bit more autonomy, and without quite as much involvement from their educators. So, it's a bit of professional development and training around what the different levels of supervision mean and how to actively and effectively supervise based on those different levels.

The team and I work through the challenges of effective supervision. All through communication. We use a team approach. If we need to leave the space, we'll often just say, ‘hey, we're heading out’, where we're going, what we're going be doing. With our supervision stations outside, we'll often rotate as we see different children roam around the yard, just to assist those children so that we can just be available to give them support if they need.

We especially set up provocations and learning experiences according to the children's needs. What their interests are—that would engage them more—and keep them more focused.

So we'll always make educators available to be in certain spaces to give support when children need it.

I.e., in the mornings, when you know, our children tend to be a little bit more unsettled, we will plan activities that require close supervision from educators. Which in turn then helps the children to settle easier.

And I do regular ratio checks throughout the morning, as well as the educators. And if I go outside and I notice that it's a little bit, a little bit full on, if there's some challenging or complex behaviours that are present in the moment then we might decide, okay, yes, we're meeting our ratios but we do need a little bit of extra support out here right now. So I'll make myself available or I will make somebody else available to go and provide that additional support. Just because you're meeting a ratio, doesn't necessarily mean that you’re meeting the need for supervision and for effective supervision.

Say for instance, the child requires a hat out of their bag. We will place ourselves at the door, ensuring that we are still visible to all children in the outdoor environment and also having eyes on the child entering the room.

You could absolutely replace the word supervision with care. It's just the absolute crux of what care is. There's not really anything that's more important than supervision. It keeps our children safe and that's one of the very most important things in early childhood.

Director of Hervey Bay's Brady Bunch Early Learning Centre, Ebony Dowdle, said it's important to mentor educators so they understand the key priorities of supervision.

'We have our beautiful mango tree outside and that requires somebody to be present and actively involved.

Whereas there are different activities that the children may be able to do with more autonomy and without quite as much involvement from their educators.

So it's a bit of professional development and training around what the different levels of supervision mean and how to actively and effectively supervise based on those different levels.'

Educator Monique Viljoen said the team set up provocations and learning experiences according to the children's needs, what their interests are, what would engage them more and keep them more focused.

'For example, in the mornings, when our children tend to be a little bit more unsettled, we will plan activities that require close supervision from educators, which in turn, then helps the children to settle easier,' Monique said.

Active supervision in 6 steps

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1. Set up the environment

Arrange the environment for maximum visibility, accessibility and flow space around furniture. Waist-height furniture allows a view of learning spaces from several angles and is readily rearranged to suit different learning activities.
Be aware of where children are and how they will use equipment. Set up climbing equipment well away from fences or arrange high-risk activities, such as carpentry, where supervising staff can help children while adequately supervising the rest of the play area.

2. Position educators

Always face the majority of the group. Consider a ‘back to the wall’ strategy so that educators are looking at most of the children instead of walls or fencing.
Decide where to stand or sit before starting a new activity to ensure maximum supervision and to reduce safety risks.
Consider where other staff members are located and position staff members in various locations across the whole play environment. Position a staff member near any corners or areas that are less visible and may be a hazard.
Stay close to children who may need more help than others or to children engaging in high risk activities (such as when they are using monkey bars).

3. Scan and count

Continually scan the environment to know where everyone is and what they are doing.
Scan and check the environment for hazards such as open doors or gates, play equipment in unsafe positions or children trying to enter out-of-bounds areas.
Develop a system of regular head counts to mark arrivals and departures. Know where each child is at all times.
Make sure enrolment records are easily accessible and up to date with the names of people authorised or not authorised to pick up each child.

4. Listen

Identify signs of potential danger by the sounds youngsters make, for example, splashing water, crying, choking or gasping, bad language or silence.

5. Anticipate behaviour

Use what you know about each child’s knowledge, culture, ideas, abilities and interests to anticipate what he or she may do.
Create challenges that children are ready for and support them in succeeding.

6. Engage and redirect

Use what you know about each child’s knowledge, behaviour, culture, ideas, abilities and interests to plan learning experiences that engage curiosity and wonder.
Take part in planned activities to minimise the risk of harm and injury.
Keep little ones busy and active to encourage lifetime learning.

When to increase educator-to-child ratios

There are times you will need to increase your educator-to-child ratios, including during:

water play
high-risk physical activities (such as climbing on monkey bars)
transitions (including transitioning children between a school and the service or between outdoor areas for outside school hours care services)
excursions
bush kindy
transportation to and from the service.

More information

Read about the requirements for supervision from the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA):

Supervision requirements under the National Quality Framework (NQF) including educator-to-child ratios and adequate supervision
Active supervision: Ensuring safety and promoting learning (PDF, 1.1MB)

Read more about the importance of supervision on the adequate supervision page and ACECQA’s adequate supervision for children’s safety page.

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