Parental Contributions to Learning Journeys?

[Guest]

Hi

I was just wondering how you ensure parents are contributing effectiviely to their child's Learning Journeys and observations? I feel like all the things I have tried in the past haven't had the desired effect! It is a hard one, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you

Rachel6

[Guest]

hello

I have a WOW display in my classroom that is completely generated by the parents. This term my WOW wall is a 'Starry night'. I send home 5 WOW tickets to each child at the start of the term and the parent writes their own observations (sometimes its writing, sometimes its a museum, cinema, or train tkt, sometimes a photograph). I then put these on the display as and when the child brings them in to school. The children loves it and so do the parents (and my head teacher ).

In terms of the learning journey, i hold a stay and play where the parents are free to come in to the classroom and play with the children on the activities i have set up. I also leave the learning journeys out so that the parents can have a look through with their child. last term my stay and play sessions were on friday afternoons (2:55 - 3:15) but not many parents turned up so this term i am sending out a survey to see when best suits most parents.

[Guest]

This term my WOW wall is a 'Starry night'. I send home 5 WOW tickets to each child at the start of the term

 

 

 

 

 

I forgot to say, my WOW tkts (this term) are the shapes of Stars so that they can go straight on to the display.

Edited January 21, 2013 by Guest

[Guest]

we have problems getting parents involved too. it's hard to catch parents first thing as one of us is on the door saying hello and making sure no one goes back out (escapes!!), as they see the toys and want to go out to play, one is taking messages - different people collecting etc, and the last person is in the messy room settling tearful ones and getting names on paintingsaprons on for water/paint etc. so we try to catch them at the end, but until all/most of 33 have gone we can't, as person on door is passing on messages of grazes etc and other 2 making sure no one gets up and leaves without being called. i've asked for staggered start/end to make it easier, but no joy. we have a wow wall and encourage parents to add them too. if they tell us something we'll give them one to fill in, or do it for them if we know literacy is a problem. and when their child is the focus child - each group has one child a week - we catch parents and ask about current interests etc and write a post-it ourselves to show we have had the conversation. and write post-its a lot and put on parents page - anything they tell us or record of us asking to refer to health visator and them saying they will!! sometimes we give post-it for them to fill in, but if we do we know we'll have it done and there'll be something on parents page. i'd be interested to know how any other school nurseries manage with less staff and safety. maybe there's something we could change? x

[millhill]

You might have seen this already, but I send these out during a child's focus week.

 

http://eyfs.info/for...overing-letter/

 

Last term, 29 out of 30 parents returned them.

I use the information I get from them, along with my observations, to plan next steps for the child. I also meet with the parents during their child's focus week and we discuss the child's next steps together.

 

I also send out Wow notes with an information sheet so they know what we are looking for.

The children have home learning activities and the parents are encouraged to comment on their child's learning, I reply fortnightly.

I send out weekly news and encourage parents to go on the class webpage with their child, which has activities relating to our topics on it.

 

These all work successfully, some parents are more involved than others, but I do manage to get something from all parents!

[Guest]

You might have seen this already, but I send these out during a child's focus week.

 

http://eyfs.info/for...overing-letter/

 

Last term, 29 out of 30 parents returned them.

I use the information I get from them, along with my observations, to plan next steps for the child. I also meet with the parents during their child's focus week and we discuss the child's next steps together.

 

I also send out Wow notes with an information sheet so they know what we are looking for.

The children have home learning activities and the parents are encouraged to comment on their child's learning, I reply fortnightly.

I send out weekly news and encourage parents to go on the class webpage with their child, which has activities relating to our topics on it.

 

These all work successfully, some parents are more involved than others, but I do manage to get something from all parents!

 

these are lovely. you do get a good response

[Guest]

That's a brilliant resource - I might hand it out to my parents at parents' evening tomorrow. Thank you for uploading it.

[Rufus]

This is something that i have always found difficult. We send LJ home for parents to add to each half term but it is always the same ones. This term however I did an A4 speech bubble sheet, asking questions very similar to the above attachments but contained to one page. I got almost 100% response which was amazing and I am sure it was because it was quick to do and kept to one page therefore appealing to busy parents. Will definitely do it again.

[Pimms o'clock?]

This is something that i have always found difficult. We send LJ home for parents to add to each half term but it is always the same ones. This term however I did an A4 speech bubble sheet, asking questions very similar to the above attachments but contained to one page. I got almost 100% response which was amazing and I am sure it was because it was quick to do and kept to one page therefore appealing to busy parents. Will definitely do it again.

 

Hi Rufus I would love to see what you came up with if you would be willing to show please, I'm all for one sheet of paper as less is more with my parents thank you.

[Rufus]

Parent and child voice sonic hedgehog.pub

my class is called the super sonics, so that is why it has sonic the hedgehog on it but you could change that.

here it is

[Guest]

Thanks for all the lovely ideas, definately given me food for thought. Will be trying them out! x :1b

[Guest]

I work in a one and a half form entry school but there are two reception classes. To overcome the lack of parents voice in our learning journeys we decided to invite the parents in. I split my class into four groups depending on who their key person was and roughly their ability/ how their parents would get on. I then allocated them two slots during terms 3 and 4 to come in on a Friday morning from drop off to about 9.30. All the other children are sent into one classroom to do child-intiated whilst the both sets of parents are in the other classroom. We have been explaining that the books are really a two way thing. I was really aware that parents could be afraid of writing directly in the learning journeys so brought some speech bubbles post-its from Wilkinsons for them to use instead. We have done three sessions done and I think they are going well, I have had 8 sets of parents so far and they seem to enjoy the opportunity to come in and discuss with their child their learning and also seem more confident to contribute. I think it would be really good to do this in September to get parents started on it and then just remind them.