Early years teacher Linda Jones is quite happy to obey a command from a little girl seated in the book corner to do a ballet twirl, and receives some very critical looks, followed by giggles, as she does so.
The fun factor counts highly at Seacroft Children's Centre in east Leeds, where a child-led approach is not just an ethos, but a way of life. The atmosphere is certainly relaxed on a Friday afternoon, with children pottering around and applying themselves to activities such as drawing and dressing up, while practitioners chat to them in an unhurried way.
It is the quality of this interaction that makes Seacroft feel more like a home-from-home than an institution. Children are clearly receiving all the one-to-one attention they need in order to feel secure and happy.
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