Parent visit week

[skippy]

Hi we have been thinking of inviting parents in to stay for a morning with us to share what we do in a session. I wondered if anyone has done this before and how they prepared for it? I was thinking of having information in areas of the provision for parents to read what learning could take place.

Thanks in advance 

[FSFRebecca]

Our setting does this when children change groups (because when a child first starts we spend ages settling them and their parents and then, a year later the child is settled and knows everything and is ready to transfer to the next room but the parents don't know the routines in the next room and can be a bit 'adrift'.). We have 'Parents' breakfast' we serve fruit juice and Danish pastries and invite the parents to stay at drop off time and their child shows them round the new room, shows them where they keep their things, shows them the routines and their new friends and teachers. Parents then stay and play as if it were a settling session - the parents leave when they feel ready to.

We have also have parents play evenings in the past when we have picked out one EYFS area and set up different play activities across the nursery that reflects that area and had staff in the different rooms explaining what their children are learning at each point and how they can support their children at home similarly. So, we might have a maths activity set up e.g. using the balances to do 'bigger and smaller' but also have water play set up and remember to talk about 'does the smallest thing float or sink?' and 'is that always the case?'. We found this demonstrates to parents how they can bring learning in at home without having to do 'lessons' or feel like they are doing 'maths'. We found that encouraging parents to test things out and ask challenging, open-ended questions, was very helpful.

[skippy]

Thank you Rebecca. DO you have anything out for parents to see learning intentions?

[ladybirds1991]

Hi

 

Every half term we do a 'Stay and Play' for parents/carers/grandparents etc....for them to come in on a certain day and spend time in our setting with their child to see what they get up to while they are there, we tend to change the day in question from half term to half term to enable all parents to have the chance to attend. For that reason we also have them timed to hourly slots set out through the day which parents have to put their names down if they wish to come in.  We have been doing this now for a few years and it seems to work really well.

[FSFRebecca]

On 10/31/2017 at 20:23, skippy said:

Thank you Rebecca. DO you have anything out for parents to see learning intentions?

Not really, but we do have staff in the rooms telling them what they are learning! They do this in a 'so you think you're playing with sand but actually you're learning about capacity' kind of a way.