Positive Relationships: Working with Parents - We're listening

The Lizard CHILD Trust (LCT) regards research as part of its setting's monitoring toolkit, and much of this research evolves out of everyday events, conversations and interaction with others. One example is a small-scale research project to establish how we might involve parents in their children's learning journey.

The research indicated that parents had a strong desire to be more involved in their children's learning and engage with practitioners but were unsure what they had to offer in terms of teaching and learning. It also revealed that practitioners were keen to develop relationships with parents, but having the confidence to talk with parents about children's learning varied across the team.

We reflected on this and recognised that our practices focused on involving parents lacked clarity and needed a fresh approach. LCT then sponsored a nine-month research project, which aimed to answer the following question: 'How can we develop responsive relationships with parents that support children's learning?'

This new project took the form of practitioner-led action research, using a combination of complementary methods to develop partnerships through parent workshops, home visits and mentoring to build practitioners' confidence. We regarded the research as a journey that parents and practitioners embarked on together and wanted to ensure that parents' views were represented truthfully.

BEING PREPARED TO BETTER ENGAGE

To gain a better understanding of why some practitioners lacked confidence, they were invited to assess their confidence levels prior to and after home visits.

It was important to ensure that practitioners were fully prepared to rise to the challenge of engaging in responsive relationships with parents, and we hoped that this self-assessment process would enable us to meet the practitioners' immediate needs and plan for future training.

Interestingly, it became clear that a practitioner's ability to engage with parents was not linked to qualification levels; rather, it was connected to actual working experience with parents, with the least experienced practitioners being less effective at engaging. In response, we focused on building strengths using review and reflection via peer mentoring, with the mentor acting as a critical friend.

With the publication of the Nutbrown Review, we saw we were not alone in realising that this was an issue. The review noted that, 'The most impressive knowledge of child development and ability to identify individual needs and support a child will count for little if that information cannot be shared effectively with parents and carers' (2012:21).

Mentoring was threaded through the research project and helped the setting ensure practitioners were supported with training and professional development opportunities.

Practitioners embraced mentoring as a source of support. It saw practitioners develop self-awareness and identify self-improvement strategies as they reviewed their own skills and practice, leading to practitioners taking ownership of their learning and development. Since the end of the project, LCT has continued to take an approach where mentoring and practitioner reflections underpin professional and personal growth.

BUILDING RESPONSIVE RELATIONSHIPS

Home visits

With practitioner confidence on the rise, we introduced home visits through a newsletter, discussion, posters and a welcome pack.

Most parents welcomed these visits, with a few choosing to 'opt out' for various reasons. These views were respected and practitioners offered up alternative ways to engage, such as one-to-one meetings and opportunities to have lunch with their child at the setting.

At the home visit, we aimed to encourage information sharing and to promote partnerships between practitioners and parents that were equal and active. We found that meeting families on their 'home turf' encouraged parents to share their expertise about their child. Parents told us that they were reassured by the emphasis that the setting placed on supporting children's well-being and many offered ideas to help practitioners provide consistent provision.

To help measure the impact of this strategy, we invited parents and practitioners to offer home visit feedback, and there was an overwhelmingly positive response.

Feedback suggested it is a successful strategy for improving and developing responsive relationships - and is summed up by one parent who said, 'Practitioners can understand the child in the context of their home/family circumstance... and develop personalised, tailored early years provision to enable the child to achieve their potential. It's what every parent wants.'

Parent workshops

We wanted to offer workshops that would build relationships and enable us to become co-educators and share strategies to support children's learning. What parents were not doing - the deficit approach - was something we wished to avoid. Nor did we want parents to view us as experts teaching them parenting skills.

We used practical activities to introduce key concepts such as schema development and ideas to nurture children's well-being throughout the workshops, and we explored ideas to support this with the use of video footage of children at the setting.

Parents were asked to record footage of their children engaged in learning at home, which we shared and discussed at the next workshop.

This approach:

• generated discussions about adult engagement styles that supported children's well-being and patterns of interest

• enabled parents to demonstrate their own expertise on how best to support their child's well-being

• flagged up the importance of parents sharing such information with practitioners to enable them to continue to support learning

• enabled us to share the message that acknowledging children's well-being helps to create a secure base from which they can begin to engage.

Feedback provided by parents involved (36 individuals) indicated that they valued sharing ideas with practitioners and had identified some of the benefits to be gained when partnerships are formed. One of the unplanned outcomes was the potential to create supportive partnerships between parents. There was an overwhelming response from parents about how much they valued the opportunity to talk to each other.

Our parents have helped us to learn about the rich source of information they hold about their children, and in this environment they openly demonstrated their expertise.

Removing barriers

Some of the previous attempts to involve parents in events at the setting had seen poor attendance and much of this was due to childcare difficulties. To remove this barrier, LCT, which holds charitable status, agreed to provide free childcare.

Based on the outcomes of this research, a local community group has provided funding to enable the trust to continue developing the workshops. This was also an unexpected outcome.

Outcomes

Providing free childcare to support workshops and additional staff to act as mentors has required considerable financial investment from the trust. However, research outcomes such as increased communication between parents and practitioners are creating a greater understanding of children's learning and developmental needs. There is also the considerable increase in practitioner confidence along with an ongoing mentoring system that supports continued professional development.

This research evolved from information provided by parents and we responded to what they were saying and took action. Arnold writes, 'If parents are listened to, their children receive the powerful message that their family, its culture and values are worth something in the wider world' (2007:52). We want that powerful message to reach our families.

Practitioners need to be receptive to parents' views and ways of becoming involved in their children's learning. Offering a variety of methods for them to become engaged and encouraging them to share their expertise is a good starting point.

The research valued feedback and reflection with all involved and this helped us to respond effectively. Parents are being listened to and the views, expressed in their feedback, are helping to shape policy, procedures and practice at the setting.

REFERENCES

• Foundations for Quality: the independent review of early education and childcare qualifications, final report, June 2012, by C Nutbrown. Department for Education

• 'Sharing Ideas with Parents about Key Child Development Concepts' by C Arnold in Involving Parents in their Children's Learning. 2nd ed, by M Whalley (2007). London: Sage Publications.