Little People Pre-School, in the Bourne Valley Youth Centre in Poole, Dorset, offers 15 places for two-year-olds. In its last Ofsted inspection it was noted, 'Staff are committed to working in partnership with parents and carers to create and maintain good quality relationships... to enable parents to engage in their child's learning.'
Its approach starts from day one: the team and the key person ensure a friendly welcome and vary settling-in procedures depending upon family requirements. The key person provides a tailored package with opportunities to build relationships. Families are encouraged to stay during the first few sessions. Sharing information is encouraged, and a relationship based on mutual respect is formed. When parents and children are ready, parental attendance is reduced until the two-year-old is comfortable to stay alone and parents confident about leaving them.
The pre-school builds on these initial relationships and encourages daily two-way communication. Time is allocated for informal sharing and exchanging of information at arrival and collection times. These daily discussions support parents to become confident with their key person. The information provided by parents increases the key person's knowledge of individual children, the family and their individual needs.
As well as the daily discussions, weekly progress updates from the key person introduce parents to the EYFS and how their two-year-old is learning and developing. Initially the pre-school provided parents with termly progress check updates but it changed this to weekly updates as it felt the frequency of the discussions would engage parents and encourage better two-way communication between home and pre-school. Each week the parent and key person review the child's progress and parents are able to contribute to their child's learning and developmental record. The discussion allows parents to recognise and celebrate the small steps and the large achievements their two-year-old is making. The key person uses the weekly progress discussions to highlight next steps for learning and identify home learning opportunities. Parents are reported to value the regular progress update. They welcome the ideas to support their children at home and willingly provide updates and feedback on activities at home.
The active two-way communication allows the pre-school to develop respectful relationships as parents and pre-school staff value each other's views and actively work together to support their two-year-olds to succeed.
Further information
James Hempsall is director of training and research provider Hempsalls (www.hempsalls.com)
