Guest Posted May 8, 2005 Posted May 8, 2005 Hello! Is there anyone out there who has done or does do home visits to new children before they start at Nursery? I am working in a state FSU and we are interested in looking into carrying out home visits but we are not sure how to go about this. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Guest Posted May 8, 2005 Posted May 8, 2005 Hello!Is there anyone out there who has done or does do home visits to new children before they start at Nursery? I am working in a state FSU and we are interested in looking into carrying out home visits but we are not sure how to go about this. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 31415[/snapback] Ive done home visits for the last 5 years and it works really well.I have a parents meeting in July where I tell the parents about the value of the visits and I explain that the children are much more comfortable meeting us in their own environment.I stress that if a child doesnt want to speak to us then it doesnt matter.I also tell them that the visits are not compulsary and if anyone prefers not to have one then thats fine[i have never had a refusal yet.] Then in Sept Nursery starts 3 days later than main school and we do our home visits always in pairs.
AnonyMouse_73 Posted May 9, 2005 Posted May 9, 2005 Like Crestacat we have also done home visists for the past 4 years. It is such a vauable experience for our chidlren, as they no longer see us as strangers, and also for our parents who often have limited expriences of schools. We use it as a purely social experience, we dont take forms to compete and we go through our information for parenst booklet which we have available in 5 languages. We take translators as much as we can, as many of our parents dont speak English. Our parenst love it and get disappointed if we miss them out for any reason, and the chidlren settle quicker and remember our visit often years later. We take photos if we can, although we dont push this as sometimes chidlren hide behind the settee and this is fine too. We have these ready for when the chidl starts and show them, sometimes they carry the photos around with them for a few days whilst they settle. We have never had a parent refuse, and I wouldnt contemplate ever stopping! I find the benefits to all very much outweighs the logistics and time constraints.
Guest Posted May 9, 2005 Posted May 9, 2005 We do home visits for our Reception intake too. One of the nicest things is that the children never forget it (in the nicest possible way, of course! ) It obviously means a lot to them.
Guest Posted May 20, 2005 Posted May 20, 2005 I have carried out two lots of home visits for my nursery, one lot in September and one lot prior to the beginning of January new term. Even though this had to be done in my time, not school, I found it invaluable. Home visits prove to be useful as you know exactly what situation the child lives in, and when they talk to you about home you can relate easier. They settle into nursery quicker as you are no longer perceived as a stranger having been welcomed into their home. Nursery opens up to two weeks later than school, carrying out visits during the beginning of the school term. I always take my Nursery Nurse with me as she plays with the child and therefore has a good insight into their capabilities and personalities, while I talk to the parents and complete the necessary admission forms, and informal questions useful to us. I think they are a must, and there are loads of positives, not many negatives that would make me re-think. Go for it.
Guest Posted May 21, 2005 Posted May 21, 2005 We do our visits in the first two weeks of term in September and I agree with all the comments made above about the benefits of doing this. You might be interested in something we started last year - when the children came for their nursery visit in July we took photos of the children(with the parents' permission) and compiled them into a book with the other children who would be going to the same session as them. We also included photos of the staff and took these books with us on the home visit which gave a good starting point for chatting to he children. We then took photos of the children at home and made these into a book for them to look at when they started nursery which they really enjoyed and still look at now and recall our visits. Another positive point - it was also really helpful for us because it helped put names to a faces.
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