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Parental input


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Not sure if this is the right place for this and sorry if not I wasn't sure where to post.

Just wondering how you go about asking parents for suggestions/ input into the provision you provide? And whether anyone had any template questionnaires?

Each child has a progress book which goes home at least termly and parents are encouraged to write things in relating to the eyfs points and also about anything they want relating to the nursery. There is a page in the front for them to do this although hardly anyone writes anything in, they just sign and date leaving the comments bit blank!! We do lots of liaising with parents via Facebook group, email etc but struggle when it comes to getting them to talk and suggest anything relating to resources/ provision etc! Any suggestions greatly received :-)

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Something I did was to have a large whiteboard at the entrance to the setting, parents were encouraged to write comments each week about their child's interests etc. Parents were told this was to inform planning, a lot of the parents really took to the idea.

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Thanks safiyya that sounds like a really good idea! We struggle more with getting them to talk about more generic things rather than about their children.

 

As a result of our last inspection our one point was:

 

-further develop a culture of reflective practice, self-evaluation and informed discussion which includes the views of parents and staff in identifying the setting's strengths and priorities for development that will continue to improve the quality of provision for all children

 

Think the staff bit is fine and we have become a lot better at documenting our reflective practice and sef we just really struggle on how to document the parental input??

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Parental input is something we tend to struggle with too. We have had a suggestion box in the past, but it gets ignored.

We currently have a "learning tree" in the entrance way that has gift tags and a pen with it, where parents can write down wow moments and hang them on the tree for staff to use in their folders.

Would sending out a questionnaire work for your setting?

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Thank you both! We struggle with times to do coffee mornings etc and in past have have had poor turnout but may be worth another go! I think I'm going to go down the questionnaire route initially and stress the importance of it. I don't know if it's just with us but I think parents are so busy sometimes they don't bring anything back!!! The tree idea sounds lovely, do you have a lot of parents input into it?

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We really struggle with this too. We have join in sessions every month which are first thing in the morning when the parents are dropping the children off. We have join in sessions of different topics e.g. reading and number and show parents how we teach these in class. We usually have a reasonably good turn out and we leave out post its for parents to write observations and comments for learning journeys and parent can look at children's work.

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Guest youngrisers

we use our learning Journeys for feedback from parents and our unique child document which I am uploading for you adapt it if you wish. we still have some parents who do not write a thing so obviously they are very happy with us?

Think some parents just cannot be bothered to take any interest in what adventures their child is busy with on a weekly basis either at home or with us so now we hold a parents open week and evening so we can get verbal feedback too. That pleases OFSTED too...

Unique child 1 document.docx

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We're also trying harder for parents to give us more information. On entry we give out an All About Me and starting point form (which I found on this forum :1b ) which the majority of parents fill in ... and then we struggle to get more.

We have now introduced a whiteboard in the entrance where parents are encouraged to stick photos, write on post-its for News etc which we can leave up for a week and then remove for placing in the child's LJ. This is working ok, always seems to be the most actively involved parents using this though, as usual.

We also have an information slip for when we change a child's next steps and this has a comment tear-off slip and the bottom, we have been known to get one or two filled in !

Look forward to hearing of other ideas you all may have that I can steal :D

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I love the 2 stars and a wish idea I got from this forum. Basically it's an a4 sheet with 3 rows, 2 with stars on and then I do a magic wand picture - the parents then write 2 things they like about the setting and then a wish!

My parents liked it and we had some great feedback.

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That sounds good Laura I'll try that!

 

On a separate note we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt yesterday (free of charge) we have 57 children - anyone like to guess how many people turned up!

If you're committee run I would hope at least the children of those parents!

So my guess is 5??

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Nope not committee run, private! 2 children but they are twins so technically 1 family!! Makes you wonder why you bother sometimes. At least we had the children that were here anyway, still Easter holidays for us so that was only 10!x

:o That's all - no it's not :o:o:o

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We also have a sheet that parents write on at parents evenings. We've just revamped it, but basically we write the children's next steps on it as well as some of their big achievements and the parents fill in any comments they have.

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Nope not committee run, private! 2 children but they are twins so technically 1 family!! Makes you wonder why you bother sometimes. At least we had the children that were here anyway, still Easter holidays for us so that was only 10!x

So sad, all the hard work that staff put in towards these activities, and usually in their own unpaid time :(

We used to have fantastic parental input but for about the last 3 years it has dwindled to virtually non-existent, I feel so sorry for my one proper committee parent who tries so hard and gets nowhere :(

Oh well back to work for me tomorrow - onwards & upwards :1b

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

I'm new to this so don't know if this is much help.

We have introduced home link slips which the parent keeps at home and when they make observations on their child during a normal day, they fill them in and bring them in. We can then put them in their learning Journey in the relevant area. Obviously not all parents will bother but so far i've had some back which is great.

 

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Guest youngrisers

We send out a parental questionnaire twice a year and feed back the results

we always hold a parent feedback evening /agm so they can hear how their child is doing with their progress and make this a social occasion.

We hold fundraising evenings and events and recently did a curry and quiz evening locally with yummy food and a great table quiz of 6 rounds where we filled the restaurant and ate far too much lovely Indian cuisine.

Think some parents are great others find anything there child does a hardship......

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  • 1 month later...

we have used Survey Monkey a free online questionair that you design and parents can access easily, we found parents bringing paperwork back was minimal so we looked at the option of a quick online survey - this works really well and can be annoymous too which sometimes helps :) we always offer the online option on the hard copy so its completly parental choice as to which means they select.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If the questionnaire is quite snappy could you hand out on clipboards at collection? Some will dash off as usual, but some might feel obliged to participate, particularly if they suspect they won't get their child back until they've done it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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