Parent involement

[AnonyMouse_1326]

At the moment the parents do not really get involved with the day to day life of the nursery. They do fill out the wow cards, come along to parents meeting and attend plays. I would like to encourage the parents to come into nursery and spend time with their children in the setting. I was thinking of INSPIRE type morning and afternoons for the parents. Has anyone done these and if so what have the used for nursery aged children. Also if you have any idea to get parents more involved in the setting.

 

 

Little bit of a back ground of the nursery

 

The nursery is a 30 place day nursery for children aged 2-5 years they come between the hours of 8.00am to 6.00pm with a majority of the parents working. We have some children who attend the setting just using the FET hours.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look at my post

 

Karen

[AnonyMouse_13453]

We have "come and play" sessions, and "stay and chat" and they work quite well, but generally just attract the same parents. Some just aren't interested, and some work and are unable to come. It's worth a try though!

[AnonyMouse_9650]

We host two "Bring Your Grown Up to School Weeks" one in the spring term and one in the summer term (the autumn term one was dropped as it proved too unsettling for children who had just settled in after September starts). We started off having one day for mums, one for dads (so they didn't feel too overpowered by an all female presence) and two days for mums, dads, grandparents etc. They are quite well attended.

 

We are a term time preschool with a mix of working and non working parents. Giving plenty of notice helps our working parents arrange time off. We also say they can stay for as long as they like with a minimum of an hour so that children don't get upset as we had one or two who would only stay for about 20 mins.

[AnonyMouse_1326]

Thanks for the replies, I will give the stay and play sessions a try. Did you just set up and run your session the same as normal or did you set up special activities?

[Guest]

I would love to go to things that I am invited to by my son's nursery but anything during the day is just a no due to me being a teacher! I can't book the day off. They have done the odd thing at weekends that I've been to like at Christmas when we helped to decorate the nursery.

[AnonyMouse_22106]

We used to have a very well attended parents rota, but over the years this has less and less interest, as Cait says its usually the same ones who stay.

 

I even overheard a parent last year say to another mum " I've paid my fees for them to look after her, why should I have to stay too!"

[Guest]

We have a dads club once every six weeks on a Saturday morning which has proved very valuable. We also invite parents for a Xmas workshop to make decs and have been thinking about a tea party, but we again generally attract the same parents. But we are trying, and that's all we can do.

Hope this helps

Petunia

[AnonyMouse_19762]

Oh I like the 'dad's club' idea - what do you 'get up to'?

[AnonyMouse_832]

Hi there - take a look at the PEAL (Parents, early Years and learning) website. If you go to resources and then practice examples you can download lots of case studies with ideas for ways to involve parents.

 

http://www.peal.org.uk/resources/original-practice-examples.aspx

 

I deliver training for this course and the materials are excellent as the ideas are all from actual settings and are tried and tested.

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

We are in the second term of having 'Together Times' in our EY unit. We have 2 Reception classes of 28 whose parents / carers attend a circle time with changing focus on a Friday, either 9.00 am or 2.15pm, and also afternoon and morning nursery sessions of 26 children in each. They also get invited to circle times on Fridays. We also promote reading with the children by asking the adult who drops off the child on a Monday morning or afternoon to stay for 15 minutes to share a book.

 

The uptake has been over 50% to all sessions, good for us!

Topics for circle time have included: song box, phase one Letters and sounds demos, mathematical activities, Easter Creative days.

 

We also invite the parents / carers to stay for lunch with their child every half term. (Everything a bit different for us as we work in a school environment!

Hope that is some use - if anyone wants to add suggestions to my ideas for me to try, please please do so!