We are coming up to parent's evening, but we realised that evenings are not always a good time for parents and so we now offer them a choice - from before work till mid-morning and from mid-afternoon till later in the evening. This ensures that everyone gets an opportunity to meet with their child's key person and discuss their development.
We also found that not many parents of the younger children made appointments, preferring to have regular updates on their day-to-day progress. We now offer appointments to all families of children over two, but tell parents of younger children to make an appointment if they would like one.
For all children - and babies - we provide a written report focusing on how they are progressing through the framework. Parents tell us how much they enjoy and value these, and that they prove just how well we know the children.
Writing reports doesn't come easily to all and although in some ways it would be easy to say, 'I'll write them for you', it doesn't help the staff develop their skills. I also believe that the child's key person is best qualified to reflect on and document progress. It was hard to watch one particular staff member, who seemed really afraid of writing reports, and to know how to support her. All those working with under-threes were challenged by writing reports under the EYFS.
I looked at the development matters for each area of learning and for each phase of development, and used these to formulate questions for the staff to answer in their reports. I was pleased when they all started writing their reports and said how the prompts had led them though their children's profiles. This, combined with their knowledge of their key children, made the process much easier and more rewarding than they expected.
Reading the reports has shown me how well the staff know the children, and how skilled they can be with the right support.
