You will see that this scenario has a more general theme to it. It includes aspects of several of the Core Skills and overall its theme is that of handling a complex situation and at the same time 'Treating People Well'.

Setting the Scene

You are just about to start your weekly under-fives story-time when a playgroup leader turns up with about 6 children and a helper. You are a bit concerned because the playgroup is going to make the audience for your story-time quite large and some of the current children attending with their Mums and Dads are quite shy and are still getting used to sitting and listening with other children.

This is a one-off opportunity that you need to capitalise on, even though on this occasion, it's going to be a bit hectic!

How might you approach the situation?

Option	Description
A	You agree to include them, settle them all down and say to the children: "Great to see you. Hi kids!" - and to the playgroup staff: "As you can see, these regular story-times are very busy so we need to see if we could organise something specially for you. Let's settle the children down for now and if you can you hang on for a few moments after the story-time, we can sort something out for the playgroup".
B	You tell the playgroup that you can't accommodate them for a story session this time, but you arrange for them to make their next visit a bit of a party so that they feel special and know you are looking forward to seeing them.
C	You tell the playgroup workers that while it is storytime, the library is too busy to accommodate them and ask them to come back another time.