Parent partnerships are key to a successful early years experience for children and for them to gain the most out of their early education and reach expected levels of development. This responsibility usually falls to the key person to ensure an effective relationship is built and to share information at the beginning and end of the day and also at various other points such as meetings to discuss development. There are many reasons why parent partnerships are so important for the child and it is for this reason that Ofsted will often require evidence that parent partnerships are taking place. They will also gather evidence on this by speaking to parents at the beginning of the day on drop off or the end of the day on collection
Why are parent partnerships so important?
- Parents know their children best
- It helps the child to feel safe and secure while in the setting if they see that their parents feel comfortable there.
- To create a shared level of expectation
- To information share about new levels of development, any concerns and any new likes or dislikes
- To keep up to date with what is happening outside the setting, especially if the home situation may be causing problems for the child
- Parents can feel secure to seek advice, help and support should they need it
- To make transitions throughout the setting smooth
- Improve practice and outcomes for the children, ensuring every child has their full individual needs met.
There are many other benefits to parent partnerships and all daily practice should be based around this. Every setting will do things in a different way and there is no right or wrong way to build relationships with parents. Many settings choose to create a parent parentship policy detailing the many ways their setting manages this.
How to evidence parent partnerships
Some of the ways settings choose to build parent partnerships and evidence this include:
- Daily diaries – This may be paper or electronic form and are particularly useful in baby room. These can be written in by practitioners and parents to share any information about how a child has been during the day or night such as feeds, if they have been unwell, meals and nappies
- Learning Journals – Some settings choose to send these home for parents to add any new achievements or special pieces of work and new experiences
- Sleep over bear – These are done in many forms but often have a bear with a sleepover bag containing pj’s, toothbrush and a diary. This can then go home with different children for an adventure and a sleepover. Parents can fill the diary in with photo’s or written entries
- Pets – Often settings have small pets such as a hamster who has a diary and can home with a child at weekends for a sleepover and an adventure.
- Home learning sheets – These should be made optional and not compulsory and contain fun activities, games or songs that parents can share with the children
- Book sacks – Books and accompanying activities that parents can take home and then bring back and swap
- Parents evenings – These allow practitioners and parents an indepth chance to discuss the finer details about a child’s development.
- Coffee mornings, cake sales, advice workshops – These can be held as often as the setting can manage and are an opportunity for parents to come into the setting and have a chat with key persons or for example speech and language champions, SENCO’s or the chef for ideas on healthy meals
- All about me forms – Completed with the parents when a child first starts the setting. This should give practitioners all the information they need about a child
- Two-year check – A great chance for multi agency working between practitioner, parent and health visitors.
- Interactive display boards – Where parents can add comments, photos or pieces of work
- Newsletters – These can keep parents up to date with latest topic’s, events and the learning that has taken place that week, month or term
There are many other ways to build parent partnerships and all are important to ensuring the best possible outcomes for the child are reached.
Children’s day nurseries aren’t just for the child’s benefit. As a parent, it’s vital to know that your child is developing and learning to the best of their ability and that they’re well taken care of.
It’s the job of a children’s day nursery, then, to demonstrate this. One way of doing so is through a partnership with parents.
First things first: what is a partnership with parents?
According to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, a partnership includes ‘parents, families and practitioners working together to benefit children.’ For a partnership to work well, it must be built on trust, transparency and responsibility from all parties involved.
There are many ways practitioners and parents can work together. The EYFS focuses on four elements, including:
- Supporting learning and development
- Sharing information
- Contributing
- Making decisions and advocating different approaches and courses of action
But why is it so important for children’s day nurseries to partner with parents?
#1: Trust
The most important element of any children’s day nursery is trust. Leaving your child is a difficult thing to do, especially at such a young age, and it’s up to the day nursery to show that your child is in a trusting environment.
Not only that, a child needs to feel safe when they’re in an environment without their parents. At Stars, we use key persons to partner children with adults to effectively tailor each child’s development. Not only does this help build trust in the child, it also creates trust for the parents, too.
#2: Involvement
Parents need to get involved at every stage of a child’s development, and a partnership is an ideal way for parents to understand how their child is getting on outside of their care.
But, for this to be fully effective, parents need to be willing to get involved. This means you need to be in regular contact with your child’s school, ensuring that you understand how your child is developing and what you can do to further their learning at home.
#3: Shared expectation
At children’s day nurseries, the expectation is that parents will actively get involved in their child’s learning. For the parent, they expect their child to be left in the right hands, and that those hands are actively progressing their child’s learning and development.
Parent partnerships, then, clarify the expectations for everyone. Good relationships with day nurseries helps you manage your expectations and raise any concerns that you have about their learning. It also allows a school to set their expectation of how involved parents should be outside of the classroom.
#4: Keeping up-to-date
Children learn at different rates. A partnership with parents ensures that each parent is kept up-to-date on their child’s learning and development.
Children’s day nurseries may make changes to the curriculum or their working practices, and it’s important for this to be voiced to the parents. Monthly newsletters are a great way to ensure everyone is kept up-to-date on not only what the children are learning, but also on any changes that are made at school.
Partnership with parents: putting it into practice
There are multiple ways you can begin to put your partnership into practice. A few examples include:
- Daily diaries – development diaries can help both parents and practitioners better understand a child’s rate of development.
- Parents evenings – This allows for practitioners and parents to talk in-depth about a child’s development, helping both parties raise any comments or concerns they may have.
- Coffee mornings and tea parties – Like parents evening, coffee mornings and tea parties are the perfect way to catch up with practitioners and voice your thoughts about your child’s development.
For more information about our partnership with parents here at Stars, read our newsletter.
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Children’s day nurseries aren’t just for the child’s benefit. As a parent, it’s vital to know that your child is developing and learning to the best of their ability and that they’re well taken care of.
It’s the job of a children’s day nursery, then, to demonstrate this. One way of doing so is through a partnership with parents.
First things first: what is a partnership with parents?
According to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, a partnership includes ‘parents, families and practitioners working together to benefit children.’ For a partnership to work well, it must be built on trust, transparency and responsibility from all parties involved.
There are many ways practitioners and parents can work together. The EYFS focuses on four elements, including:
- Supporting learning and development
- Sharing information
- Contributing
- Making decisions and advocating different approaches and courses of action
But why is it so important for children’s day nurseries to partner with parents?
#1: Trust
The most important element of any children’s day nursery is trust. Leaving your child is a difficult thing to do, especially at such a young age, and it’s up to the day nursery to show that your child is in a trusting environment.
Not only that, a child needs to feel safe when they’re in an environment without their parents. At Stars, we use key persons to partner children with adults to effectively tailor each child’s development. Not only does this help build trust in the child, it also creates trust for the parents, too.
#2: Involvement
Parents need to get involved at every stage of a child’s development, and a partnership is an ideal way for parents to understand how their child is getting on outside of their care.
But, for this to be fully effective, parents need to be willing to get involved. This means you need to be in regular contact with your child’s school, ensuring that you understand how your child is developing and what you can do to further their learning at home.
#3: Shared expectation
At children’s day nurseries, the expectation is that parents will actively get involved in their child’s learning. For the parent, they expect their child to be left in the right hands, and that those hands are actively progressing their child’s learning and development.
Parent partnerships, then, clarify the expectations for everyone. Good relationships with day nurseries helps you manage your expectations and raise any concerns that you have about their learning. It also allows a school to set their expectation of how involved parents should be outside of the classroom.
#4: Keeping up-to-date
Children learn at different rates. A partnership with parents ensures that each parent is kept up-to-date on their child’s learning and development.
Children’s day nurseries may make changes to the curriculum or their working practices, and it’s important for this to be voiced to the parents. Monthly newsletters are a great way to ensure everyone is kept up-to-date on not only what the children are learning, but also on any changes that are made at school.
Partnership with parents: putting it into practice
There are multiple ways you can begin to put your partnership into practice. A few examples include:
- Daily diaries – development diaries can help both parents and practitioners better understand a child’s rate of development.
- Parents evenings – This allows for practitioners and parents to talk in-depth about a child’s development, helping both parties raise any comments or concerns they may have.
- Coffee mornings and tea parties – Like parents evening, coffee mornings and tea parties are the perfect way to catch up with practitioners and voice your thoughts about your child’s development.
For more information about our partnership with parents here at Stars, read our newsletter.