klc106 Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Hi We opened in september and I feel it would be really good to introduce myself and the setting to the schools in the local area that our children will move onto, to start the link between us and them. Has anyone got any advise on the best way to start this link with them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rea Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 We started ours really quite informally years ago when our own children were at the school. The playleader at the time asked the reception teacher if we could take our pre-schoolers in to meet the teachers and get to know the classroom the half term before the summer break. Since then we have developed a relationship with the head who has given us the use of one of the school playgrounds every day and we use a classroom there once a week so we can offer 5 mornings. I'd ask the receptionist if you can have a meeting with the head, take a short letter with you so he has a bit of background of your setting and the relationship you'd like to have with the reception class and the EY teachers. Build it from there :1b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Hi we have built up a strong relationship with our feeder schools through our cluster meetings, do you have these in your neck of the woods? This also includes a meeting to discuss schools new intake, as well' as visits to settings. Most schools are only too happy to do this to help with a smooth transition for the children. Give your EYA a call to see if this is something they do in your area. :1b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I too have good links with most of our feeder schools (about 9!) we network at forum meetings we have twighlight sessions run by our lea I invite the reception teacher in to visit the children going to them, as part of transition (the schools in my area have moneyto allow for this) I have gone to see them We also worked together on a 2 yr project a few years ago which got us to understand their hurdles etc and they found out just what we do. even with this all though i still have one school who does not make an effort. I have to say all the effort has proved worthwhile and the children have benefitted so much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 we too had links, but were hard to establish if the school did not want to know.. we had one next door that ignored all our efforts, and despite many invites from us to visit, and all we could do never even responded.. this included personal visits as staff had children at the school and as they knew them tried to do the links for us.. where as another local school always sent reception teachers in summer term to spend a full day with us, so they could meet all the children they were having in the Sept. and join in having a fun day with us, often going back and changing some of the things the4y did because they saw it working well with us..that was the best compliment they could have ever made.. in return they invited us to the school in Spring term to see the children who had moved on and they encouraged the children to show us what they had been doing, and we had a fun day with them as well.. others school always visited in the summer term if we had a child due to attend with them, but our LEA paid for the schools to do this so where the money went with the first school was anyone's guess... they all got enough for 3 days of visits.. It is all worthwhile, but may take time to establish, start with the schools you know will be taking the children in September..we started by sending them an open invite to visit us - all but the one took up the offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klc106 Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 Thanks everyone! We are keeping all our children this summer it will be next summer that they move. Do you think it's too early to start the link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Thanks everyone! We are keeping all our children this summer it will be next summer that they move. Do you think it's too early to start the link? From my experience which is the same as Inge's - that the nearest school is the one least involved so far... I'd say start as soon as you can. How many schools are you likely to feed into and how near are they to your setting? My younger son's preschool is next to the primary school and when he was there, they took the morning, or older children, for a PE lesson in the school hall one morning a week, over the summer term, they took the same group into the Reception class for story time once a week as well, so the school wasn't an unfamiliar place. I don't know if they still do that as they've had to stop only taking older children in the morning sessions. They do still take the children over for Reception's nativity play and to the sports' day in the summer. I've got a few schools we feed into regularly & I'm thinking we could send a letter out to them all in September saying we want to start building better links so we'd like to invite them to come to our events over the year, would we be able to join them for events? Our Cluster meetings are done as 2 sessions - 1 straight after school and 1 in the evening, so it gets tricky for us to make sure we're networking with those effectively - I need to think about how we do them more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 It might not be too early to start trying to establish the links. We had one very enthusiastic reception teacher who invited us to bring the preschoolers over to school once each week from the September before they moved to the school. She was very welcoming to all the children, her argument being that schools is school, regardless of whether they would be attending that particular one. It was just a case of finding a time in the week that suited us all. Even if the schools aren't as interested it might be useful to make the contact so you know who might want to do what nearer the time of the transition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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