Equality and Inclusion

What can you do to promote equality and inclusion in your child’s life?

We, as parents/carers/community, are our children’s best role model. 

Take time to:

• discuss what makes us individual, and what makes us similar to others
• connect with people both similar and different to you
• gain an understanding of each other’s ways of seeing the world
• talk about how people are equal and all deserve to be heard
• raise awareness about diversity, and celebrate and value it by encouraging children to be proud of themselves, their family traditions, and to appreciate the experiences of
  those around them.

What are we doing at GAP to promote equality and inclusion? 

The children enjoy reading ‘Children Just Like Me: A New Celebration of Children Around the World’. This book shows everyday life through the eyes and words of children from around the world.

We talk in our circle about ways we’re different and ways we’re the same; this might be family configuration, countries of origin, how we look, what we do on the weekend, what colours we like, and much more. 

We talk about how girls and boys have equal abilities at school, in the playground and at home and work. 

We encourage children to be good friends to each other, and include others in their play. Sometimes a child is having difficulty integrating and this causes safety issues, in which case we respect and support a child’s wish not to play with another. We work with those children closely, with inclusion and equality as longer-term goals. 

Puppet games are a good way to visually demonstrate friendly or unfriendly behaviours – asking “What will the puppet do if we push him? If we make fun of her? If we smile at him? If we say we like what she’s doing/what she’s got to say?” 

We draw ourselves and our family. Then we look at a friend’s drawing, and talk about what’s the same and what’s different. 

We talk about food that people eat in different countries. 

We look at our globe, and talk about the different countries and how other children say “hello” there. 

We sit next to someone else at the circle time, and find out something about that person. For example: do they have siblings, have they caught the tram, do they prefer their scooter or their bike, what do they do on the weekend, have they been to another country, do they speak German/other at home. 

To build on the ideas of teamwork and including everyone, we play pass-the-cup. By passing a cup full of water around our circle without spilling a drop, we can cultivate attention and learn about teamwork.

Our commonly used equality and inclusion phrases at GAP:

“Wir sind alle freundlich hier” (we are all friendly here), “Wir koennen alle spielen” (we can all play), “Die Farben sind fuer alle” (colours are for everyone (not just pink for girls, for example))