Each year an evaluation has been carried out at Sure Start Chelmsley Wood (now Chelmsley Wood Children's Centre) to look at how we are measuring up to national and local targets.
This research, by an external evaluator from Warwick University, involves gathering evidence from different sources, including speaking to parents to get their opinions. As our project is focused on children, we thought it was important to find ways to get the children's opinions of the project too.
An Evaluation Advisory Group was formed to steer the process and to think about how to reach not only the children, but also more of the parents, for their opinions about our services. The group is made up of parents, our evaluator, team members and other professionals linked with children's centres. Several parents also agreed to pilot a project to find out what their children thought about Sure Start.
This involved giving disposable cameras to three-year-olds and asking them to take pictures of things they liked (or didn't like) at Sure Start. When the photographs had been developed, the parents asked them to talk about the photographs and then added their thoughts as captions when the photographs were put together in various formats.
The results of this project were absolutely stunning. Children's photographs and comments gave a new perspective to the research process, as well as supporting findings from parents.
The following issues were identified when the project was reviewed:
- Parents were surprised at how well the children could use the cameras on their own.
- Parents and team members were taken aback by the things children photographed and the perspective achieved (that is, the point from which the photos were taken achieved a different view)
- Parents commented on how much their children had enjoyed using the cameras (new skills, increase in confidence, sense of 'agency')
- Using a flash that needs activating each time was problematic, so it would be good to use cameras with an automatic flash - digital cameras would be useful, as this would also mean that pictures could be easily selected for printing.
The children's photographs produced from this pilot project have already been used for our current evaluation. Parents spent time identifying the main themes that emerged - and here they are, with examples of children's comments:
The importance of friendly adults who they know well
'When I go to Rainbow Tots Alice and Charlie Wood are there to help us
sing songs'
'Karen is lots of fun and I like her'
'Rachel looks after me'
'Jan is a most lovely girl ...'
'... I like the way Marie says everything'
'Diane makes me laugh and she's lovely'
'Alice is always smiling'
'Mel has a nice smiley face'
'When I first saw Kerry I didn't know her, but the next time I saw her
she looked pink'
The importance of friends
'This is my friend George with his Mum'
'This is my friend Daniel'
'James is acting scary and he likes me'
'I shared my camera with James and he took a picture of me'
'I sometimes meet with my friend George at the creche'
'We have lots of fun in the ball pit, there is always someone to play
with'
Enjoyment of messy play
'The playdough has got sparkles in'
'I like playdough and I think it's squidgy'
'I really enjoy playing with playdough'
'I can cut up the playdough and push it back together'
'Sometimes we like Karen to play with us in the messy corner'
'I like the messy corner, I love the taste of glue'
Children's play preferences
'I like playing with the bricks'
'I like to play with this track'
'I like you can get lots of stuff out'
'I like to play in the balls with my friends (the balls are) my best
part of Sure Start'
Children's views on everyday things
'The toys are laid out ready for us to play with'
'When we go into the creche there are always different things for us to
do'
'I like the colour of the tiles and the mommies change nappies in here'
'I like the toilets because they are small like me and very colourful'
'In the toy corner some of the children have had their pictures hung on
the wall'
The parents who took part in the original project subsequently met together and decided to organise further Cameras in Action work. Two of them attended a parents' forum to recruit other parents and their children to the project. Parents have also made a commitment to become involved in sharing their project as an example of good practice.
The staff team have also started thinking how they can develop planning and evaluation to better capture the voice of the child, based on the Cameras in Action project. We want to embed processes that enable the child's voice to be heard throughout the project.
As a result of the success of the initial project, it was decided to purchase some dedicated equipment to continue this method of recording children's responses and discovering their opinions of the Children's Centre. The following equipment was purchased after taking advice from an IT specialist:
- six digital cameras
- two camcorders
- Media suite for downloading and manipulating data (including scanner and printer).
Team members and parents were invited to training so that as many people as possible would be able to use the equipment.
A baby's view
During 2006, a parent volunteer came up with the idea of capturing the child's perspective. With the consent of parents and the group facilitator, this parent attended some of the baby massage sessions and took digital pictures of the room and the people in it from the babies' position. She did this by holding the camera beside each baby's head and pointing it in the direction the baby was gazing.
The results gave a whole new angle on a baby massage group, as well as some food for thought about the environments we use for such groups. It is demonstrated by the photographs that babies spend a lot of time looking at ceilings - part of the room we, as adults, probably don't pay much attention to.
Cameras in Action at Welcome to Nursery 2007
Welcome to Nursery is a group for children and parents that takes place in the summer term each year in several local schools. It was felt that this would be a good opportunity to capture the children's perspective on this process. A parent who had been recruited by the original parents' group agreed to work with her child to capture his view of Welcome to Nursery. We hope this will become an embedded feature in the programme in the future.
Anne Gladstone is a tutor on secondment at Chelmsley Wood Children's Centre, Solihull, West Midlands.
How Cameras in Action links to Every Child Matters
Be Healthy - contributing to emotional well-being through:
- Boosting confidence
- Feelings of self-efficacy
- Knowing their viewpoint is valued
Enjoy and achieve
- Enjoyment of the task - learning is fun!
- Learning new skills
- Positive feedback promotes confidence and the desire to try new things
- Shared learning with parents improves outcomes for the child
Make a positive contribution
- Contributing to the evaluation lays the foundation for contributing to
the community in adult life
- Access to services irrespective of personal circumstances (an
additional outcome adopted by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council)
- Children's views contribute to the design of services