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Lynn Kennington, the head of Gamesley Pre-School Centre in North Derbyshire, is forthright about her priorities. 'Parents are at the forefront of our thinking. They are the child's first educators,' she states. 'We are here as a resource for the community, for the child and the family.'

Most early years providers say that they will work in partnership with parents. Gamesley Pre-School Centre has moved beyond mere comfortable words and into carefully planned joint-working between parents and staff. All aspects of assessing children's learning involve parents, who also play a prominent part in the planning process. 'Every child has an individual plan, which is created with the parents in a one-hour conference,' explains Lynn Kennington. 'We organise three of these during the child's five terms with us. We always start with what the child can do, and we have very high expectations.' The centre's success in working with parents to develop children's learning has been recognised in its Ofsted report, and in a research project carried out by Homerton College, Cambridge, and Keele University.