Nursery Reception Area

[Guest]

Hi everyone

 

Me again!

 

I am hoping to make the nursery reception area more welcoming and inviting to parents, I have allready made a parents notice board and in the process of making a parents information file, does any1 have any ideas/examples of what makes an inviting and informative reception area?

 

Grafter

[Guest]

Photos... depicting typical experiences of the nursery day.

 

Comments and feedback from parents and visitors.

 

 

I suppose it would depend really on who your intended audience is - Current or prospective parents?

[Guest]

Hi Gingerbreadman

 

Thanks for the quick reply, we are a brand new setting so would be both for current and prospective parents.

 

Thanks for the ideas, they are great x

[Guest]

Ooh lucky you, though a blank canvas is sometimes harder work than 'tweaking'

 

Maybe you could display your values and ethos and maybe aspirations for parental involvement.

 

Soft music, low lighting.

 

Usual things like staff photos.

 

I've seen a 'family' tree made with drawings the children have done and a quick quote about why they like being at nursery.

 

Think there's a photo in the forum gallery too of a cloakroom with A3 selfportraits.

 

I often look at how shops window dress for inspiration on presentation.

[eyfs1966]

I like to include resources for parents to borrow, such as books and dvd's on childcare, school brochures etc. I also include a folder of all staff training and certs. I also have a board showing photos, names and job titles of all our staff.

 

Love the family tree with quotes idea, might just have to "borrow" that one!!

Edited June 8, 2010 by eyfs1966

[redjayne]

we have a digital photo frame which is updated every couple of days with pics of the children doing activities and 'just playing' placed right alongside the parents notice board - works really well especially when an important notice is placed right alongside it as parents lok at the pics and then see the notice!

[Guest]

In our nursery reception area we have 2 comfy chairs, our nursery library area and a flower display. On the walls we have a staff photo board, a photo frame with excerpts (sp) from our compliment letters, parent info board and a board with the usual insurance certificates, Ofsted reg etc. It is very "adultfied" to look at but long the bottom of the wall we have wall stickers of Winnie the Pooh!!!

[Guest]

Before you start adding stuff, step back for a moment and approach the area as a parent rather than as a practitioner. How much stuff would you bother to read? Which bits jump out at you and make you stop and look? Don't think about what you WANT them to read from your perspective, i.e all the things that you think parents really should read. Think about what THEY would want to read about as a priority - parents typically can't hang around all day flicking through leaflets, etc.

 

I find too much stuff just blinds parents to what they are meant to be looking at. Although it looks great to us as practitioners, I have really slimmed our reception down so that they are encouraged to actually see the important stuff. For instance, this morning I really wanted them to see an article from our local paper featuring a lovely photo of one of the children holding an Eagle Owl, so I put big arrows pointing to this and edited all the stuff around it so it stood out.

[Guest]

Forgot to mention that we also have 2 A5 presentation books in reception for parents who are waiting to see someone to look at. One is a week in the life of..........and each room has 2 pages full of photos of the different things they do all day and the other is a book of all of our achievements or appearances in newspapers, magazines etc. Parents love them and if we go to job fairs or marketing days they come too!!

Edited June 9, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the great ideas, they are fantastic, I cnt wait till tomorrow till I get to go in and put them into practice.