Partnership with Parents
Our Partnership with Parents is extremely important to us
We strive to achieve an open, strong and meaningful partnership with all our nursery parents so we can provide the very best care and nursery education we possibly can for each and every child.
iConnect Learning Journies
Each child has an electronic Learning Journey, in which their Key Carers and parents share valuable information about their welfare and happiness, and into which we will also include photographs showing the children engaged in various activities or visits, giving parents an insight into their child’s nursery day.
We feature different observations and Informative entries through iConnect:
“Learning About”: these Informative entries ensure that parents know which areas of the curriculum we are focusing on; how we are discussing the concepts at Nursery, and how parents may wish to support this learning at home.
Key Dates: for example, dates of upcoming Nativity plays and Sports Days are displayed on iConnect, helping parents keep up-to-date with any changes in event times, or to simply invite you and your little one along! Please do respond to say that you have received the message!
“Wow Moments”: if a child achieves a real milestone at Nursery, you will receive a “Wow Moment”. These may range from settling happily for a sleep in a cot for the first time, to a particular act of kindness.
Meetings
WELCOME MEETINGS: New parents are invited to a Welcome Meeting where the Head or Manager shares all the nursery paperwork including the strategies, frameworks, policies and procedures, and invites parents to discuss their child and ask any questions they may have.
TWO-YEAR CHECK: When your child turns two, you will be invited to a meeting with your Child’s Key Carer to go through their Development Check, as part of their Integrated Review with the Health Visitor.
PARENTS EVENINGS: Each year, you will be invited to a ten-minute Parents Evening meeting with your child’s Teachers. This is a wonderful opportunity to discuss your child’s progress and to answer any questions or queries you may have.
Home Learning – Extending your child’s learning at home
Many of our parents ask for useful articles to support them to encourage their child’s learning at home, but remember, learning ‘at home’ does not necessarily mean ‘in a house’ – learning will take place in the garden, at the park or in the swimming pool – in fact, there is no time out from education experiences for your children!
Below is a list of some other simple ideas that you may wish to embark upon with your child.
1. Do some housework together: vacuuming, polishing (not aerosols), dusting, making the beds, tidy a messy cupboard, etc. This helps develop language, independence, physical skills and awareness of the environment.
2. Create a den in the garden for role-play. This develops imagination and helps your child to use language to organise their ideas.
3. Raid the wardrobe for clothes. This develops imagination, language, as well as the physical skills and independence required for dressing up.
FINALLY: learning at this age is all about having FUN – let your child make decisions, encourage them to be independent, let them make a mess and never forget, they should also HELP YOU TIDY UP!