Home Learning Packs

[GFCCCC]

We had Ofsted last Friday. It went really well. The inspector was very nice indeed and had a long chat with us after the inspection. She talked to us about what it takes for her to award outstanding and she said when a setting is really good in everything it does then she just looks for something that gives it the wow factor. One of the wow things she likes to see is to do with engaging parents in their children's learning and she mentioned home learning packs. We have come up with a couple of ideas for low cost learning bags we can put together - who else uses these and can anyone share any ideas of what to put in them?

[Susan]

Story sacs spring to mind.

Number sacks, letter sacks.

Anything that supports what is going on in your setting.

[zigzag]

Love the idea of this but it just seems like such a lot of extra work. Especially when some parents cannot even be bothered to take their children's art work out of their book bags for weeks on end!!

I would really love to have the energy and motivation to do this and if I did I would try and link packs to the children's next steps so it would build and consolidate on the learning that takes place in the setting.

[apple]

I agree that this type of thing can be a lot more work and yes some parents don't engage no matter how hard we try. However, home learning can play such a pivotal role in breaking down barriers and helping parents/carers see that we do have a human face and that we are all in it for the same reason i.e. the child.

We have a variety of learning sacks that can be borrowed for home use as well as a number of activities that parents can use to support learning further. Fun things like recipes for play dough, cutting skill ideas etc

 

We have even got a CD that parents can use at home that is filled with all the songs that we sing on a day to day basis to help with routines. So yes, it can be time consuming to set up initially but the benefits are so worth going that extra mile for.