Parents Taking Learning Journey's Home

[Guest]

Hi, hope to get your thoughts on this

 

I have finally got to the point of not allowing my staff to take learning journey's home to work on, they now stay on site to work on them, or take their obs stickers and the blank file sheets home to stick the stickers too and anotate with next steps to put in the file each week. Learning journey's are now more accessible than ever, out in our cloakroom which we open a few minutes before the end of each session and 10 minutes before, and parents are invited to see them at anytime, and we would never kick a parent out that was looking at one, even if the session had started.

 

Recently we have had a few parents asking to take them home as dads want to see them. Do you allow them to go home and if so how do you keep track of them coming and going and make sure they are returned?

 

Thanks

[lashes2508]

We never let them home with parents probably because no one asked but we omitted art work , drwaing etc and put them into a book of their own and encouraged children and parents to take them home at holidays to add anything they wanted.

Although there was a note on the front saying please return , often they were forgotten and parents needed reminding or they got ruined ( admittedly this was only on a couple of occasions), it's difficult because you want to share but at the same a lot of work could be lost .....

Maybe someone else can advise ......

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I guess we are lucky - we have only ever had one learning journey lost.

 

We are in the middle of parent meetings this week and at the end of a meeting with a parent the learning journey is always sent home to better absorb it's contents, to share with other members of the family and so that parents can contribute to the record of achievement for this term.

 

We have shared learning journeys between a child's different settings as well which worked really well to help the child make links between their different settings - the parent concerned was delighted to ferry them to and fro.

 

I know we are taking a risk in sending these home but I think it is just too important not to do - by sharing them regularly and encouraging contributions from families I think it puts a greater value on the learning journey. The families also take ownership and feel proud of it.

[Devondaisy]

we have regular update meetings with parents too, and like Gwennie, the parents take the folders home, and bring them back once they've had a good look. Admittedly we always have to remind some parents to bring them back, but they always do in the end. The worst that has happened to one was a glass of red wine being spilled on it!

[Panders]

We have always allowed the LJ's to go home with parents - how else would dads or working mums get to see them, let alone extended members of the family. We are only custodians of these folders, they do belong to the parents, as much of big disappointment it would be to lose one, the persons really losing out by that are the parents. If you keep a check sheet of where a child is at at nursery, you could begin again, as if just receiving a child into your nursery from another (if you get my drift!!), and explain by way of a note at the beginning of it that the original was lost and how.

 

I know these folders represent hours of work on our part, but we do have to trust parents to take them home I think.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Panders

[Pimms o'clock?]

...absolutely, I agree with everything Panders said.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Pimms o'clock?

[sunnyday]

Completely agree with Panders and Pimms!

 

We ask our parents to add their comments to their children's folders too.....

[Guest]

I've started sending ours home too - we just ask parents to let us know if they've borrowed the folder - more so because I might wonder where I've misplaced it if I'm trying to file things! This is proving quite popular with our parents and I'm hoping to build on this and encourage them to actually contribute to the folder as the year goes on (we already do WOWs and I'm nagging about these atm).

[Guest]

Ours are in loose leaf hardback files and I stick a pocket on the inside cover with a card inside with the childs name on, when parents take them they put the card in a card box in the foyer so we know who has taken them bit like an old fashioned library system.

[Guest]

agree with panda too,!!! thats what we do .

[Guest]

We encourage our parents to take the LJ's home at least once every 3 months and I really think it help to maintain a positive relationship between parents and staff. The parents have to sign a 'log' to confirm the LJ is in their care and we chase them if they are not returned within 10 days.

Once the parents get into the system they seem to look forward to the update and as a result we have never had a problem getting them back to update.

[enuffsenuf]

We recognise that some of our parents are unable to come into the setting to look at the learning journeys so we always allow parents to take them home...we have a form to record when they went out and to whom they were given and we chase after a week. My understanding is that learning journeys are not ours....they are the children's thus they should be shared between all those who care for children (including their parents) and the child...and what a lovely way to share some experiences by parents and child sitting at home talking about the pictures etc?