As a parent you are your child’s first and most important teacher. Education starts at home and you as parents play a crucial role in guiding your child in the earliest stages of their life and in building strong foundations for and shaping their future learning.

You are your child’s most significant role model and have a great influence on their attitude and propensity for learning early on. You will naturally be supporting and teaching them through your everyday care, routines and other activities all the time. Each time you spend time with your child you are encouraging and helping them to learn, overcome difficulties and better understand the world around them.

Learning is most rapid in the early years. So, regular attendance at nursery is important. However, children spend less than a quarter of their total waking hours at nursery. As such, parents and the home environment play a vital role in a child’s early learning and development. We believe, as a nursery, it is especially beneficial to work in partnership with parents to enhance and further support this learning to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children.

We encourage parents to share what they do at home and to tell us about their child’s interests and fascinations. This helps us to plan appropriately and to incorporate these things into your child’s nursery experience.

Likewise, your child’s key person will keep an electronic record of photos and observational evidence for your child at nursery that you are welcome to look at and contribute to. They will be able to tell you about your child’s development and give suggestions for ways to enhance and extend learning at home.

Research shows that when parents engage in meaningful activities that encourage talking and thinking to stretch children’s minds as part of everyday life it can enhance children’s development significantly.

Ways we will work in partnership for the benefit of our children:

• Welcome meeting each term for new parents.
• Age appropriate support sheets available to take home.
• Regular newsletters with nursery updates.
• Story books available on a daily basis for borrowing and sharing with your child at home.
• Song and rhyme book to take home each term.
• Story map and words with Makaton signs given out for each focus story completed at nursery.
• Regular opportunities for parents to join in story and rhyme times in homebase groups.
• Regular opportunities for parents to volunteer to help with nursery play activities alongside nursery staff.
• Parents invited to join in with festivals at nursery and to send in photographs of family celebrations for our corridor display.
• Parents encouraged to contribute to their child’s learning journey, especially when they are a focus child at nursery.
• Weekly nursery learning plans to view in the parent area.
• Weekly toy lending library.
• Weekly story sack lending library.
• Parent chat opportunities with your key person.
• ‘Helping at Home’ sheets available from your key person.
• Some opportunities to attend workshops and be involved with visitors, outings and fundraising.
• Have a say by talking with staff or responding to questionnaires.