partnership with parents

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We believe that children benefit most from Early Years education and care when parents and setting’s work together in partnership. Your input is very important to us and any new ideas, which could improve our nursery are welcomed. We recognise that your life skills, background and culture are a valuable resource to our nursery and you are always welcome to attend part or all of a nursery session and maybe share some of your experiences or skills.

To enable us to ensure the best care for your child please speak to your child’s person or the manager about any changes in your child’s home circumstances or any sickness. This information will be kept in confidence.

We also want parents to have confidence in both children’s well-being and their role as active partners within the setting.

The nursery recognises that parents are the child’s first carers and educators and therefore their views and knowledge of their children are paramount in ensuring that we are able to provide the best possible care.

Families who have English as an additional language

The nursery is committed to ensuring all families feel welcome and included in the setting and we have adopted certain practices to help support families with EAL. We also support children within the setting by using lots of visual aids, signing, props and puppets, labels and signs in home languages, multi-language books and tapes and finding out key words to help with communication to name but a few.

Induction and Transitions

At Scallywags we understand that starting nursery, moving from one room to another, changing settings or starting school is an exciting time for children, but can also be a challenging and anxious time for both children and their parent/carers. We are committed to putting the needs of the child first whilst working with each other, parents/carers and other professionals to make transitions as smooth as possible for all concern.

We realise having your child start nursery can be an anxious and scary time so we aim to make the settling in process the most relaxed and smooth transition as possible.

We recommend doing as many “settling sessions” with your child before the child’s start date. A few sessions could be a “stay and play” session where you would stay in the room with you child, get to know the room routine and the members of staff. This is also a good time to get to know your child’s key person and go over any specific needs of your child, basic home routines, sleep time, feed time, like/dislikes etc. After a couple of these sessions we would recommend you leave the child in the room and pop out, so we are allowing your child to grow confident and form a bond with their key person and other carers within the room.

Although children moving from room to room as they reach a new age group have usually been with us at Scallywags for some time, we still see this as an important transition for them and feel that it is important that this is planned and carried out in a way that meets the needs of each individual child. An up to date transition form on the child will be completed by the original key person and handed over to the room leader prior to the child moving over. This information will contain child’s individual routine, likes, dislikes, any additional needs, the child’s developmental goals and next steps etc. The same process as “settling sessions” when children start nursery will occur when children move on to the next room, the child will have “hour” sessions leading up to the half day sessions in their new room. Once we feel the child is settled and confident in their new room and has formed lovely and strong relationships we will arrange a parents meeting to introduce the parents to the new key person and show them around the room.

School Transitions

The move from nursery/pre-school to primary school is a massive step for both the children and their parent/carers. On finding out from parents which school their child will be attending, either the pre-school room leader or individual key practitioners will contact the schools to arrange a meeting. This would involve the child’s new teacher coming into the setting and meeting the children in their nursery environment and getting to know them. We also include the discussion of moving to primary school within our daily circle time and get the children involved in a variety of school related activities. Each child’s key practitioner will also complete a detailed transition form including all the areas in which the child has met and completed each area of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and ensure this form along with an up to date progress report of the child is sent off to the reception teacher.

Open-door Policy

The nursery operates an ‘open-door’ policy with regard to discussing any concerns with parents and we are committed to working together to resolve any problems or worries about a child or the care that they receive.

If a parent has a concern about their child they are encourage to speak to their child’s key person. Any other issues regarding the nursery should be taken to the nursery manager who can organise a meeting, if appropriate, to discuss them. If the parent is unhappy with the outcome and feels it has not been successfully resolved, they should follow the nursery’s complaints procedure.