Working in partnership
The relationship between early years settings and parent/carers is a crucial one as parents/carers know the children best and have important information about the child that would contribute to their nursery experience. Therefore, this relationship needs to be supportive and based on mutual respect so settings and parents/carers can work in partnership to achieve the best for the child.
Time and commitment needs to be invested in this relationship both before the child starts at nursery, while they attend nursery and when they are transferring to other educational establishments.
The Code of Practice (2015) states:
“Local authorities, early years providers and schools should enable parents to share their knowledge about their child and give them confidence that their views and contributions are valued and will be acted on.” (para 1.7)
And this is supported by the Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage:
“...children learn and develop well in enabling environment, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents/carers” (DfE, 2014).
Early years settings can arrange opportunities to maximise parental engagement such as:
- Home Visits
- Settling in sessions
- Conversations
- Online learning journals
- Daily home/setting diary
- Informal Coffee mornings
- Training sessions
The NASEN website has lots of useful information(NASEN requires membership - which is free - to access these materials).