Links With Other Providers

[Guest]

Hello, my first post on here and I wondered how others are going to or already managing links with other providers?

My nursery setting is part of a primary school and some of our children attend other nurseries at the same time as ours.

They might do one or two sessions at the nursery they've attended since the age of two for example and keep this up once they get to three and start at ours.

I can see the benefits of sharing information about the child's interests etc. but wonder how to go about it. Shouldn't parents have to give permission?

 

I find this site really useful and enjoy reading the posts.

JP

[Guest Wolfie]

Hi Jenny and welcome to the forum!

[dublinbay]

Welcome from me too Jenny!

[Guest]

Hi there Jenny!

 

Wouldn't the booklets need to be passed by the parents onto the other provider? If they are doing this then surely this is a measure of their approval. Perhaps you could start of with a paragraph in the book describing what the book is for which you ask the parent to sign too and then they could keep adding to the information also making it a great info booklet on the child.

[Guest]

Do you mean where a child attends more than one setting? I was about to ask the same question!

[Guest]

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies and yes I do mean when the child attends more than one setting and that could be with a child minder as well as another nursery.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Jenny

[Guest]

I've been thinking about this.....it sounds like a good idea so we are working towards the same goals for the child.....but.... I can see these profiles getting lost or the journey between each setting not running that smoothly. Sorry to sound so negative!!!!

 

What does everyones think?

mrsb

PS Hi and welcome

[lynned55]

I have to say i agree with you mrsb, I wouldn't be too happy about records & paperwork being passed back and forth between settings, esp if we are relying on parents to pass them between us. Although I do think in theory it is a good idea, but we still have the odd one or two parents who try to keep secret the fact that their child is going elsewhere.

[Guest]

I think you'll find its compulsory under EYFS in September....... I'm off to find the page in the document!

[Guest]

Couldn't just a simple exercise book be used? More like a diary of activities and development.

 

I wouldn't want to send the childrens pathways too much hard work goes into those!!

[Guest]

I was thinking much the same. Similar to a home-school link book? A Home/Nursery/Childminder Link book or some similar title.

[Guest]

Hi. We use an exercise book for a homelink diary but you are right it does rely on the parents taking responsibility for passing it along and remembering to use it. We encourage the parents and grandparents to use it too. Some families are very good at using it and passing it along, others not so. We are hopeful that from September when it is not so new it will become more "what we do" and not novel. However as we have recently had a major breakthrough with a local setting with whom we share children we are looking into adding a clause into our contract about parents giving permission for information sharing. From this I envisage having a regular slot in which we might call or meet with the staff from the other setting, perhaps through a single contact person to whom key person's feed information, and swap info in this way. As you can tell from my ramblings this is still in the planning stage! Oh and it does need people willing to take time away from work hours possibly, but I am pleased we now have colleagues willing to share the information so I am prepared to work at it until we find a way that works.

[Guest]

We're looking into this too. I have recently revamped our registraion form to ask for 'consent to share information about your child with other settings, including pre-schools, childminders and schools' .

 

I already have a meeting with the Early years teacher at our local school re those moving up but that requires a yearly consent form. I explain that this aids the child's transition between settings if information is shared.

 

But I also think that as much information as possible should be shared between pre-school settings as it must benefit the child if we are all working to the same goal, and that's the important thing isn't it?

[apple]

oh heck imagine if you have several children going between settings- sitting down to write even a few words in a home/school diary each week is still likely to be time consuming as well as keeping your own records updated!

[Inge]

and its not just teh information sharing but planning for the child's needs between settings .. we often have several at different settings and i can see chaos on the horizon.. last time we tried this as a trial we found parents did not help by not taking book into tother setting and other setting refused to respond to us..

 

Inge

[Guest]

I agree, I think a a 'diary' that moves between settings would be very time consuping and complicated. How about a questionnaire sent home every half term, say, taht asks 'what can your child do at home/or other setting' - that way you get a fuller picture of what the child can do?

[Guest]

The diary can be time consuming but to be honest it is lovely to look at the comments the parents have written. Those families that have taken it up have helped us learn so much about their child and what they get up to outside of the setting that I don't think we would have learnt otherwise. These tend to be the families that are not experiencing any problems and just drop off their children and collect without bothering us. If we do speak to them we usually find they say things along the lines of you are so busy we didn't want to take your time. The diary has given them a communication tool which they are happier to use.

 

We try to make a note of the topic/theme we are covering (which usually arise from children's interests, and often from comments in the diary). Additionally we try to note anything of significance, positive and negative which occurs. For children who attend twice a week we currently strive to make a note at least once a week, so it doesn't become too onerous. I often carry a small pile around and note things as I make post it note observations. The children really like seeing me do this and often ask "Is that my book? Let me see the name?". They also like to take some time to make their own "notes".

[Guest]

I agree, I think a a 'diary' that moves between settings would be very time consuping and complicated. How about a questionnaire sent home every half term, say, taht asks 'what can your child do at home/or other setting' - that way you get a fuller picture of what the child can do?

 

I wondered about a questiinairre but wasn't sure what questions to ask? also would you send out the same questionairre every time or adapt it....

[Guest]

Hi everyone - been struggling with the idea of how to manage this information sharing as well. Some of our children attend another pre-school, whose attitude seems to be to let us do all the work (i.e. historically stepping stones and transfer documents if they attend with us) - no matter who has the majority of care.

 

We have revised our registration form to include information sharing with additional settings to help plan for the childrens needs but the only way I can see of being able to do this is to perhaps verbally contact the pre-schools once a month to see if they are focussing on a particular area for a child. So if a child is not interested in say creative work, we can look at ways of encouraging it based on their interests. Or it may be that they do not find it inspiring at one setting but are keen to join in at the other setting in which case it is possibly not a concern.

 

(hope that bits make sense!!)

 

As SENCo I am looking at how to work with a child with special needs who will be doing 3 sessions with me and 2 at another setting. Do we both work with the child on targets from outside agencies having agreed them first? Or is it down to the setting again who has the majority of care?

 

Would not have time to fill in a diary for these children realistically although it does sound a nice idea.

 

Has anyone had advice from an EYAT?

 

[Guest]

Hi everyone - been struggling with the idea of how to manage this information sharing as well. Some of our children attend another pre-school, whose attitude seems to be to let us do all the work (i.e. historically stepping stones and transfer documents if they attend with us) - no matter who has the majority of care.

 

We have revised our registration form to include information sharing with additional settings to help plan for the childrens needs but the only way I can see of being able to do this is to perhaps verbally contact the pre-schools once a month to see if they are focussing on a particular area for a child. So if a child is not interested in say creative work, we can look at ways of encouraging it based on their interests. Or it may be that they do not find it inspiring at one setting but are keen to join in at the other setting in which case it is possibly not a concern.

 

(hope that bits make sense!!)

 

As SENCo I am looking at how to work with a child with special needs who will be doing 3 sessions with me and 2 at another setting. Do we both work with the child on targets from outside agencies having agreed them first? Or is it down to the setting again who has the majority of care?

 

Would not have time to fill in a diary for these children realistically although it does sound a nice idea.

 

Has anyone had advice from an EYAT?

 

 

 

We have had no advise from our EYAT at all, she was in last week, told us to develop a way of communicating, didn't say how? They are also still working on the record keeping documents, they say they will bring something out but it's getting closer and closer and still nothing.....don't want to make my own then have them bring something out.....

 

As for the special need children, we have had children at 2 settings, i contacted their senco and we used the same targets on the IPP's , then at the end of every term we sent a copy of what we achieved... and they did the same... it worked well

[Guest MaryEMac]

Luckily for us ,most of the children who access another setting, use the same one. The leader of this setting is one of the leaders of the out of school club which use the room after us so we do talk about the children we have in common. Last year we had a joint child who had special needs, we compiled the IEP and shared it with the other setting and that worked very well.

Not too sure how it will work when we have got to do it because their way of working is so different to ours.

 

Mary