Parents As Parners

[Guest]

Hello,

 

I have just started a new job as a leader of a pre-school within a school.

 

Parents do not come within the setting to drop off or pick-up because it is within the school.

 

Apart from the obvious things like talking, I have thought up of many ideas to include parents such as:

 

A weekly sharing session on a rota system

A4 binder containing all info that can be placed in school reception

newsletter home

learning journeys & daily diary

 

I have also picked up on this fab forum the WoW wall.

 

What i was wondering is if there are anyother practitioners out there that face similar challenges regarding including and sharing with parents.

 

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

Thanks

 

[sunnyday]

Hi Robbiefan

 

Do your parents complete some form of 'Entry Record'? If you do a forum search you will find one that Cait has made 'My Unique Child'........this then forms the first few pages of Learning Journey.....

 

Do you produce Individual Plans/Next steps documents that have a section for parents comments........thus enabling them to contribute to planning........

 

'Social' events for parents.....

 

Sunnyday

[Mouseketeer]

i set up the pc in the waiting area and run slide shows of the photos we've taken for the parents to watch when they collect children, especially of a particular outing/visit but also just general pics, can be a bit time consuming though as you only really want the pics of the children in on the session you are planning to run it.

[Upsy Daisy]

Email updates might be worth considering. Either on an individual basis if you have time or en masse as an addition to a paper newsletter.

 

Whether it would work or not obviously depends on you own circumstances and those of your parents and the setting.

[Deb]

How about inviting parents in to choose a book with their child to take home, once a week with different children on different days so as to stagger children.

[Guest]

I'm kind of facing the same problem...some parents feel we could communicate better with them but i feel we do alot already for example:

 

X newsletters

X all about me sheets for parents to fill in

X Parents evenings

X All plans are displayed

X Two notice boards

X Access to their childrens folders at all times etc etc

 

I was interested to find out about what others do to???

[Beau]

I'm kind of facing the same problem...some parents feel we could communicate better with them but i feel we do alot already for example:

 

X newsletters

X all about me sheets for parents to fill in

X Parents evenings

X All plans are displayed

X Two notice boards

X Access to their childrens folders at all times etc etc

 

I was interested to find out about what others do to???

 

Why don't you turn it around to them and send out a letter detailing the ways in which you communicate with parents and asking them for ideas of how this could be improved?