Home Visits And Transisition Into Reception

[Guest]

Hi there,

 

I have been asked to look into transition and home vists for this year. Previosley children have come to school for 2 weeks half days and in the afternoons over 2 weeks we have done home vists. Personally, I found this usefull and great op to get to know parent/ child in thier environment. However my head asked if I could see if other schools were still doing home vists? is it still a big thing or did it get pushed out?

 

We do get parents who complain as they have to take 2 weeks off work.

This year I have proposed that they come to school for 1 week (mornings only) with the key worker meeting each parent in the afternoon but within the classroom ( no one else would be thier just the key worker and family/child). Doing it this way will ensure each family is met 1:1 for half an hour and that way children can begin school full time in the second week. (also they will stay for lunch 3 of these days and then leave after lunch)

 

Please can I ask your views on this? Paretns out there what do you think to home vists? Teacher out there what do you do in your school?

 

If I do go ahead with it like this for this year I will be able to see instantly what is more effective for everyone but I dont want to be making a huge mistake!! plus ofsted due any time!!

 

Thanks all, look forwars to your responses!

[Guest]

In my setting we have all children in full time on the first day. This year that will be 60 children in 2 classes.

 

The last half term we spend lots of time on transition with groups of children in our nursery coming to spend some time in the different classrooms and with staff. Children who aren't currently at our nursery but have a place in reception are invited to these sessions and we hold 2 meetings for parents to explain procedures and introduce ourselves. We invite smilers who do before and after school club, breakfast buddies who do breakfast from 8.15, school meals, school nurse etc. parents say its really useful and are happy. The kids cope really well too which is the most important thing.

 

Previously (before the 15hrs nursery entitlement) we took children in over 3/4 days this was organised by those who we thought would struggle most coming in on day 1 usually around 8 or 9 children for the full day then on day 2 another 8-9 till they were all in.

 

As a parent I'd find it quite difficult arranging child care for such a staggered intake. But that's only my opinion.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Guest]

I re organise what I do every year to try and find the 'ideal' option! In the last two years the first week has been split into two days for parent/teacher meetings, two days for stay and play sessions with parents and then on the friday we hold number/phonics workshops for parents and the children play in the room next door with the TAs. The second week has been one class am and one class pm. This worked really well as it meant we had 4 adults for 30 children plus the whole class was in at the same time so you could begin to see friendships/problems.

This year we will have three classes for the first time so we won't be able to do that. We are going to use the first three days of term ( wed, thurs, fri) to do parent/teacher meetings for two days and then workshops on the friday. We don't do home visits and to be honest I visit every child at the their setting in the summer term and we have story time sessions for the children at school. The first full week in each class will be split into 15 so they either come AM or PM probably switching mid week.The next week all the children will be in full time.

It's always hard to juggle everything and to keep everyone happy.

Becs

[Guest]

Hi my school has always done home visits, it is not the norm in the area (we are the only school that I know locally that does it) but it is considered best practice by my EYA. I have already started my transition visits to playgroup for next years children and they are already coming to us once a week for PE in our hall and snack in the classroom with playgroup (we have the majority of our children from there) Because we do so much this end of the year, we have them in quickly in september compared to other schools locally. This is what I have done for the last 2 years

 

1st week after hols-3 days of home visits (Me and TA) and then 2 days of either mornings or afternoons

2nd week-either mornings or afternoons (15 in each session)

3rd week-all children mornings+ lunch then home

4th week-all children full time

 

In the summer term we invite them in for 4 storytime session (1/2 hour each) and then a whole morning all together

 

Both parents and children are very positive about home visits- the children still talk about when I went to their house. You get to see the children in their home environment and their relationship with their parent and I would say it is invaluable for getting a clear picture of the child. The other thing which I think is invaluable is that I have a fantastic relationship with parents (all on 1st name terms) I'm sure through having that chance to meet them on home ground. The ofsted inspector we had last year liked that we did home visits and said everyone should do them.

 

My youngest daughter started school this year and at her school she wasn't full time since week 8!!!! as both me and my husband work full time and don't have family locally, it was a nightmare to get her there and picked up and I felt it was completely unneccessary as there were only 20 in the class. My husband lost quite a few days of holiday through it and we were really resentful as that then impacted on our family days out/ holidays because of it. Her school do next to no transition before the summer (2 short storytimes, no visits to playgroups or home visits) and see it as being something which happens in september/october. I on the other hand want to get them in and get cracking!

 

Deb

[Guest ShelleyT]

We do not do home visits. We always have the children part time for the first week (all of them for the morning) but this year we also decided to have the second week part time but they stayed for lunch. The parents really appreciated that. In September we have 2 days at the end of the first week, so we are going to try having just half a class on the Thursday morning and half a class on the Friday morning. It was just mean we can spend more time with each child rather than the usual chaos that we get!

 

Shelley

[Guest]

Thanks for your responces everyone good to see everyone has different routines. sont want to make a mistake but suppose its all trial and error!