Sharing Info. Parents/practitioner

[dottyp]

Through a recent parent questionnaire, it appears that our parents feel they do not have enough information fed back as to their children's learning and progress (we are in a village hall pack away setting) although all parents are aware they can talk to their key person anytime with our 'open' policy. Could anyone tell me how they manage to share child progress with parents ie. open mornings, planned meetings, appointments etc. in a more formal way.

 

thankyou.

 

dottyp

[Panders]

Hi Dottyp - I'm in similar circumstances, i.e., packaway in rented hall. Parents are shown any long observations we do, as soon afterwards as we are ready - they have a place on the observation proforma to write any of their input, or we would do that for them. In addition, we discuss progress every 12 weeks with parents after we have completed our assessment of the child's learning over the previous 12 weeks. We complete a very short report, focussing on up to 3 learning areas, make our comment, and where we will plan for next and talk it over with parents, who may also record a comment if they wish to. Parents also have access to the learning journeys whenever they wish, I allow them to take them home, - afterall they are theirs, we are only the custodians of them while the children are with us and we answer any questions arising upon their return.

 

We try to keep discussions short - up to say, 10 mins appears to be enough for most parents, those who cannot regularly come in we will e mail or send learning journeys home via their representative who does drop and pick up their child to keep them in touch.

[Guest]

Hi Panders

 

What sort of sheet do you use to share the info, next steps etc? have my first ever informal parents consultations next week for our Nurture nursery childen and keep changing the lay out of the sheet

 

Sandra

[Cait]

We have 'stay and chat' which is advertised in the newsletters and parents just make an appointment to come and look at their child's file and then we look at their progress records together and chat about any issues that may have arisen

[Panders]

Hi Panders

 

What sort of sheet do you use to share the info, next steps etc? have my first ever informal parents consultations next week for our Nurture nursery childen and keep changing the lay out of the sheet

 

Sandra

 

At the moment it comes from a Kent Initiative called My Unique Story from which we adapted part of it. The info at the top of the page shows how many sessions the child does, date of birth, and whether they attend any other setting. We write which term the report covers.

 

We then have six boxes with learning areas, we keep them to a size which means we don't have to write screeds, but just enough! Each box also has an area where we can write in next steps we will be hoping to cover during the next 12 week period, but this is something we can fill in during the chat with the parent, unless it really is very straightforward. We have a box for Key person comments and a box for Parent/carer comments

[Guest]

At the end of each half term we have an informal chat with parents and let them take their childs learning journey home, we encourage them to add any observations to the folder and any comments etc. We also share individual learning plans and next steps with parents on a week by week basis. They seem to like this.

[Guest]

Hi,

 

We started parent evenings, - a bit like school really, 10 minute meetings one evening per term. If the parent/ carer could not or did not want to attend, we asked them to come in the day towards the end of a session to see their key person for a 10 minute chat.

 

Everyone seems happy with this arrangement and it ticks the box on communicating with parents.

[mps09]

We do a number of things....

 

Bedtime story for the children - while the adults are in the hall reviewing child's development file and I show slideshow of photos and videos and explain how the children are learning

 

Helping hand every day - we do obs on this child and share with parent. They also get the helping hand letter with summary of development, next steps, change for parent to add + copy sent to other settings, responses used to inform planning

 

Other forms used from time to time as well as speaking to parents start/end of sessions.

 

 

ask_me_about.doc

New_Starter_or_SEN_diary.doc

helping_hand_letter.doc

 

Hope this helps. I think regular parents evenings would be difficult for us even 10 mins for 40+ parents is very time consuming.

[dottyp]

Thank you for all your ideas. I'm going to discuss these suggestions with my team tomorrow but I do like the idea of

'stay and chat'. I will try and post our new observation sheet and half term summary sheet, which I hope will inform parents of what their child has achieved over the past six weeks and what is planned for the coming half term. We will ask the parent to add any comments and then sign to say they are aware of their child's achievements and plans to move them forward in their learning.

 

dottyp

dottyp___KEYWORKER_NEXT_STEPS_FOR_PLANNING_SUMMARY.doc

dottyp___KEYWORKER_NEXT_STEPS_FOR_PLANNING_SUMMARY.doc

[Guest]

mps09 I really like those attachments, mind if I adapt for our setting?

 

How do you file them, are they kept togethet in a file or do you add them to learning journals/scrapbooks?

 

Rachel

[mps09]

mps09 I really like those attachments, mind if I adapt for our setting?

 

How do you file them, are they kept togethet in a file or do you add them to learning journals/scrapbooks?

 

Rachel

 

Feel free to use them as you wish! that's what the forum is for....

 

We file them in the child's individual file... but use the info on the forms, including comments from parents and other settings, to plan our next steps for the child.

 

I'm very much a 'form' and routine person so it works really well for me!

 

Have fun...

[Guest]

hi im afraid i cant really help all that much with your question (well no more thatn the other poists have put - we use wow stars for parents to fill in, and learning journeys of all our obs are on display for parents to see at all times)

the reason for my post was to ask about your parent questionnaire, as i want to make one to send home to my parents.

what question did you ask etc

hope you can help

x

[cleverclowns]

At my setting we use this form, amongst others, to share and record progress and development. The form also asks for parental feedback..

 

Hope this helps

Sharon

EYFS_Obs_Record___Plan___SM.doc

Edited May 25, 2010 by cleverclowns