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Working in Partnership

Partnerships abound in our society between both groups and individuals - the best partnerships are those where each partner is valued equally and has as much power as each of the other partners. For working in partnership to be successful it has to be on the basis that the contributions of each person or organisation are as valued and valuable as each other. In early childhood settings this can involve teams from different disciplines such as education and health and social care teams working in partnership with families to ensure each child's individual needs are met. How partners work together is defined by the agreements reached about data sharing and about confidentiality - any information is therefore provided on a need to know basis. The benefits of working in partnership are enormous allowing all families to share information about their children's development or learning and supporting those children with particular needs to receive coordinated support.

The Principles into Practice cards on this page refers to the EYFS 2007, it is not linked to the Revised EYFS.
The Wider Context

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Working in Partnership - Early Years Matters

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Working in Partnership Partnerships abound in our society between both groups and individuals - the best partnerships are those where each partner is valued equally and has as much power as each of the other partners. For working in partnership to be successful it has to be on the basis that the contributions of each ...

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Parent partnerships are key to a successful early years experience for children and for them to gain the most out of their early education and reach expected levels of development. This responsibility usually falls to the key person to ensure an effective relationship is built and to share information at the beginning and end of the day and also at various other points such as meetings to discuss development. There are many reasons why parent partnerships are so important for the child and it is for this reason that Ofsted will often require evidence that parent partnerships are taking place. They will also gather evidence on this by speaking to parents at the beginning of the day on drop off or the end of the day on collection

Why are parent partnerships so important?

Parents know their children best

It helps the child to feel safe and secure while in the setting if they see that their parents feel comfortable there.

To create a shared level of expectation

To information share about new levels of development, any concerns and any new likes or dislikes

To keep up to date with what is happening outside the setting, especially if the home situation may be causing problems for the child

Parents can feel secure to seek advice, help and support should they need it

To make transitions throughout the setting smooth

Improve practice and outcomes for the children, ensuring every child has their full individual needs met.

There are many other benefits to parent partnerships and all daily practice should be based around this. Every setting will do things in a different way and there is no right or wrong way to build relationships with parents. Many settings choose to create a parent parentship policy detailing the many ways their setting manages this.

How to evidence parent partnerships

Some of the ways settings choose to build parent partnerships and evidence this include:

Daily diaries - This may be paper or electronic form and are particularly useful in baby room. These can be written in by practitioners and parents to share any information about how a child has been during the day or night such as feeds, if they have been unwell, meals and nappies

Learning Journals - Some settings choose to send these home for parents to add any new achievements or special pieces of work and new experiences

Sleep over bear - These are done in many forms but often have a bear with a sleepover bag containing pj's, toothbrush and a diary. This can then go home with different children for an adventure and a sleepover. Parents can fill the diary in with photo's or written entries

Pets - Often settings have small pets such as a hamster who has a diary and can home with a child at weekends for a sleepover and an aadventure.

Home learning sheets - These shold be made optional and not compulsory and contain fun activities, games or songs that parents can share with the children

Book sacks - Books and accompanying activities that parents can take home and then bring back and swap

Parents evenings - These allow practitioners and parents an indepth chance to discuss the finer details about a child's development.

Coffee mornings, cake sales, advice workshops - These can be held as often as the setting can manage and are an opportunity for parents to come into the setting and have a chat with key persons or for example speech and language champions, SENCO's or the chef for ideas on healthy meals

All about me forms - Completed with the parents when a child first starts the setting. This should give practitioners all the information they need about a child

Two-year check - A great chance for multi agency working between practitioner, parent and health visitors.

Interactive display boards - Where parents can add comments, photos or pieces of work

Newsletters - These can keep parents up to date with latest topic's, events and the learning that has taken place that week, month or term

Progress summary sheets - Many settings choose to have a parent comments box on the end of these sheets.

There are many other ways to build parent partnerships and all are important to ensuring the best possible outcomes for the child are reached.

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Why parent partnerships are so important - Early Years Careers

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Parent partnerships are key to a successful early years experience for children and for them to gain the most out of their early education and reach expected levels of development. This responsibility usually falls to the key person to ensure an effective relationship is built and to share information at the beginning and end of the day and also at various other points such as meetings to discuss development.

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Children learn about the world and their place in it through conversations, play activities and routines with parents and families. Parents can also support children's learning in out-of-home settings, such as childminding settings, crèches, playgroups, pre-schools, and primary schools. By working together, parents and practitioners can enhance children's learning and development.

More and more the early care and education of babies, toddlers and young children is shared among parents, families and childcare practitioners. A partnership approach between them is very important and by working together and sharing information both parents and practitioners improve children's learning outcomes.

Here are some benefits of parents and practitioners working together:

Parents feel more valued and respected, know more about their children's experiences outside their home and use this information to support their learning and development more effectively

Practitioners benefit from parents' skills and expertise, understand better the children in their settings and use this information to make learning more enjoyable and rewarding for all children

Children see learning as more enjoyable when their home life is reflected in the setting, feel more secure and consequently benefit more from the educational opportunities given to them

Apart from supporting positive partnerships with families, ChildDiary also reduces the time you spend on documentation, ensuring you have time to focus what is important: children and their education.

Whether you are following Aistear, EYFS or other curriculum framework, with ChildDiary you can make more time for yourself, do more for children and for their families, try it for free at www.childdiary.net!

PS: Check out our next blog post to learn how communication with children can improve your family's relationship.

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The importance of positive partnerships with families

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Children learn about the world and their place in it through conversations, play activities and routines with parents and families. Parents can also support children's learning in out-of-home settings, such as childminding settings, crèches, playgroups, pre-schools, and primary schools. By working together, parents

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Working in partnership with parents is central to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Consulting parents about children's early experiences helps practitioners plan their learning in the most effective way.

All contributions from parents should be encouraged and welcomed. Helping out during sessions, sharing interests or information about their culture, and taking part in discussions about the childcare service all provide the opportunity for parents to learn about children's learning, in the setting and at home.

Some parents are less well represented than others in early years settings. These include fathers, parents who live apart from their children, and working parents. This may mean that different strategies are needed for involving them and that consultation is necessary to find out what works best. Information should be provided in ways that are accessible to parents with basic skills, specific needs or those who have English as an additional language.

What is family learning and what are the benefits?

Family learning is designed to give parents and other family members the skills and confidence they need to support their children's learning at home through play and everyday activities. This can also help parents to make choices about their own learning.

Fathers, like mothers, play a very important role in young children's lives. Children do better educationally, psychologically and socially when fathers are actively involved. A positive male influence isn't just limited to biological father, but includes father figures such as foster fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, uncles and older male siblings. Where's Dad?, discusses why engagement with fathers is important, the barriers that settings may face and how to ensure that your service is father-friendly. It also includes a check list, audit form and action plan to support you to engage with male family members.

Family learning normally takes the form of activities or short workshops where family members learn together and where there are planned learning outcomes for both children and adults.

The benefits of family learning are wide-ranging and include:

improved educational outcomes for children

effective ways of engaging parents in their children's learning

improved communication between parents and practitioners

a first step back into learning for parents

improved relationships between parents and children

For more information, contact our Training Centre on 01732 363 070 or training.centre@pre-school.org.uk.

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Involving parents in their children's learning

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Working in partnership with parents is central to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Consulting parents about children's early experiences helps practitioners plan their learning in the most effective way. All contributions from parents should be encouraged and welcomed.

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Nursery World

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By Jane Drake, a partnership advisory teacher in Leeds and author of Planning Children's Play and Learning in the Foundation Stage and Organising Play in the Early Years (David Fulton)

Parents are 'children's first and most enduring educators' (Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, QCA 2000), making partnership with parents and carers essential if early years practitioners are to plan effectively for a child's learning.

A genuine commitment to work co-operatively with parents should be a feature of any high-quality setting and should impact on every aspect of practice.

As practitioners, we build up expertise in how young children learn and how each child operates within our setting. But it is the parent who knows their child best, and unless there is a sharing of information between practitioners and parents, a child's learning needs will be neither fully understood nor, ultimately, met.

Sharing information about the child

Opportunities for talking to parents about their child's learning may happen informally, and spontaneous exchanges can generate useful information.

If practitioners manage their time effectively, they can schedule such discussions, for example, at dropping-off and picking-up times, so allowing a culture of informal information sharing to develop.

A trusting and warm relationship between key worker and parents begins with the initial contact meeting, and it is crucial that, from the start, parents understand that staff value their knowledge and understanding of their child.

However, it may not always be possible for practitioners to speak to parents on a day-to-day basis about their child's learning milestones, current interests or recent experiences. Parents' working hours may prevent them from having daily or even regular contact of any kind with the nursery, and a two-way diary can be useful where contact time between practitioner and parent is limited.

In some instances, it may be the key worker who is unavailable to talk to the parent, perhaps because of other professional commitments. In such cases, practitioners should make it clear to the parent that they will arrange a convenient slot to discuss the child's progress.

Practitioners should try to engage both parents where possible and make sure that their setting is a place where both male and female carers feel comfortable. Where there is a true commitment to parent partnership, teams will be creative in their time management to ensure that they reach all the parents.

Parent and key worker meetings

Early years settings tend to organise parent and key worker meetings on a regular basis and in a more structured way. Again, the timing of these meetings will depend on the parents' daily routines and commitments, and the staff team will have to be flexible when arranging them.

These meetings offer an opportunity for the practitioner and parents to share their observations and to consider the implications of these in terms of planning for the child's learning. They should be conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect and practitioners should act as genuine listeners, responding to what they hear from the parent and not allowing discussions to be driven by a pre-set agenda based on what has been observed in the nursery. There should be an emphasis on celebrating what the child has achieved and on looking for ways of building on their current interests and achievements.

Key worker meetings usually take place in the nursery, but where parents prefer and staffing allows, they may be planned to take place in the home environment. Home-based meetings can offer a more relaxed context for the parent but will not necessarily be the choice of all.

Pre-arranged meetings give both parties time to prepare and think about issues that they want to discuss. An up-to-date development profile can provide a useful focus for discussion, particularly if that profile includes contributions from home. A series of photographs, or a video sequence, can also be very informative in such meetings.

Lending parents a camera or video camera ahead of the meeting can help provide an equal partnership and a balance of information from home and setting.

Children's learning documented through photography can give a deep insight into what is motivating them and provide useful information about their stage of development. Video has the added advantage of recording speech and movement and can be played again and again in order to revisit interesting observations.

During individual meetings with parents, time should be set aside for looking at the implications of observations from home and nursery. Planning together for children's learning should result in a more holistic approach, an enhanced curriculum and continuity for the children.

There will be opportunities to look at the child's learning journeys and to talk about appropriate provision and support for the child's developmental stage.

Where a pattern of behaviour or personal learning interest has been identified, the key worker and parent can discuss experiences that could be offered at home and in the nursery in the hope that they would engage the child and further extend learning.

For example, if both parent and key worker have noticed that the child often gathers objects in bags and transports them around the home and nursery, they could agree to provide a collection of bags and everyday objects at home and similar resources in nursery.

They could also arrange for the nursery to provide buckets, stones and shells in the outdoor area and for the child's father to take a bucket on walks to the park so that the child can collect and transport conkers, twigs and leaves.

Alternatively, the key worker and parent may decide to make a change in family circumstances the focus for planning. Perhaps relatives are coming to stay for some time and the mother is planning to involve the child in preparing a room and food for their guests. In response, the practitioner could provide additional resources in the nursery home corner and make time to discuss and 'play out' the experience with the child.

Summative reports offer parents a written summary of the child's learning and are usually organised under the six areas of learning. These should be discussed with the parents and their contributions incorporated in a section provided on the format.

Sharing information about the curriculum

In a high-quality setting, practitioners will share with parents information about the Foundation Stage curriculum and about young children as learners, as opportunities arise. However, group parents meetings are an excellent way to:

* explain how the setting plans and assesses a child's learning within the six areas of learning

* discuss the importance of the learning process

* highlight high-quality learning experiences with no concrete outcome

* emphasise the importance of child-initiated learning

* talk about schemas

* discuss appropriate expectations and contexts for learning.

Practitioners should be on hand to answer questions, although it would generally be inappropriate to discuss a specific child's learning in such meetings.

It is also worth pointing out that practitioners should only lead such meetings if they have confidence in their presentation skills and their underpinning knowledge of child development and early learning. Less experienced members of staff could, however, support a more experienced one in delivering a presentation and managing discussions.

Be responsive to the needs of individuals and the community when arranging the timing of such meetings. For working parents, a late afternoon or evening time slot will probably be the most convenient, but other parents may prefer to attend during the day.

Video observations and photographs shown on a large screen are a good way to illustrate talks and to make the link between principles and practice, but ask parents' permission to use these images with a wider audience.

Study group meetings Settings could follow up these group meetings with smaller study group meetings, in which practitioners use video observations as a means to analyse a child's learning in depth. Again, the issue of confidentiality should be addressed and anxieties handled sensitively. Once a group of parents are familiar and comfortable with each other, they are likely to feel more relaxed about contributing to discussions.

Workshops

Workshops with parents and children working together in the setting can be an effective, informal and hands-on way to reinforce messages given at group and individual meetings and focus on an area of learning or provision.

When organising such workshops:

* plan and prepare for them carefully

* provide resources such as question cards to prompt parents who may feel unsure about what will be expected of them. For example, post up a card in the construction area saying, 'Can you work together to make a garage big enough for this car?'

* send parents letters explaining what will happen in the workshop

* provide handouts about children's learning for parents to take away and reflect upon

* allow enough time to talk to parents about the children's play and learning.

Digital photographs

Practitioners should aim to provide parents with daily digital photographs offering evidence of their child's learning, as such a system is easy to organise once the equipment is available and software installed.

Replaying the images on a 'loop' or slide show on the computer screen at the end of each day or session will also be popular with both children and adults. The photographs will enable the children to revisit their experiences during the day and to share these with parents.

Practitioners could provide photographs that focus on an area of learning or provision, a key group of children or a particular learning story. Or, they could provide a random selection illustrating the breadth of learning experiences observed that day in both indoor and outdoor provision. Again, this can be an effective way of celebrating learning that has no tangible outcome.

A brief written explanation or statement accompanying the images may be helpful - for example, 'Look at all the different writing experiences your children have had around nursery today' or 'Look what we have been finding out in the water area today'.

Display

Display, such as a permanent board designated for parents' information, can be an effective way of sharing up-to-date news about events in the nursery and the community. Copies of nursery newsletters and guidance leaflets could be made available there. Other displays celebrating children's work around the nursery should be annotated to make clear to parents the significance of their children's play and learning.

Further reading

* Whalley, Margy and the Pen Green Centre Team, Working with Parents (Hodder Headline)

* Working with Parents: A Shared Understanding of the Curriculum 3-5, written for the Scottish curriculum but with principles relevant to all settings. www.ltscotland.org.uk/earlyyears/resources

CASE STUDIES

Childminders Sarah and Alan Beningfield, March

'It's all about good communication,' says Cambridgeshire childminder Sarah Beningfield, reflecting on working in partnership with parents.

Sarah, whose qualifications include the NNEB (now DCE), has been a childminder for four years and was last year joined in the 'family business' by her husband, Alan. Together they look after 14 children, including three of their own.

When she takes on a child, she issues the family with a disposable camera with which to photograph the child's family members and home. The photographs are then used as the starting point for the child's profile.

A daily chat with parents and a two-way diary, including Sarah's observations, provide up-to-the-minute information about a child. Both she and the parents also regularly use photographs as a means of exchanging information about a child's interests and learning, and parents are encouraged to bring in examples of their children's 'work' from home.

The children's profiles, containing observations, photographs and examples of the children's work, are available to parents all the time. Sarah also uses displays to provide evidence of their learning and talks to parents about the learning recorded in the children's 'tracker books', which are divided by area of learning and cross-reference the learning outlined in the profiles.

She plans to schedule more regular parent meetings and newsletters about the curriculum in an attempt to reinforce messages about children's early education.

'The parents like what we do because we encourage the children to be independent learners, but I don't think they always connect that to the educational benefits,' she says.

NE Lincolnshire Childminding Network

Meanwhile, childminders in Lincolnshire are taking part in a DfES-funded pilot looking at how ICT will help them and other early years settings rise to the challenge of working in partnership with parents.

The North East Lincolnshire Childminding Network is one of ten local 'settings' to be involved in the project, which was initially rolled out to five childminders.

Under the scheme, the childminders were given a digital camera and Digital Blue (movie maker) and worked with an ICT consultant to create a 'virtual learning environment' for each child. Parents can access their child's records via the Lighthouse for Education portal and the Network's internet site, using a protected password. Network co-ordinator Helen Weston says, 'The reaction from parents and the support that they have given the scheme have been overwhelming.'

Teresa Sutherland, a childminder for the past four years and looking after 15 children including two of her own, has embraced the scheme. Her policies and procedures, newsletters, curriculum planning and two-way diary with parents are all now available via the internet along with the individual child's learning journey, 'brought to life' by images. Video clips and photographs of, for example, a minibeast hunt, a day trip or a puppet show can all be uploaded by the end of the day, while longer-term projects, such as growing sunflowers, can be tracked using 'Create a Story' software.

Teresa, whose qualifications include an NVQ3 in childcare and education, finds she can record the information faster than before. It is also more detailed, providing her with a clearer idea of what to plan next and giving parents a real insight into the breadth of learning that occurs.

'The parents see so much more of what the children are doing and what they're learning. One parent said, "It's like being in the room myself".'

Series guide

* This 12-part series aims to support practitioners in achieving and maintaining high-quality provision in the Foundation Stage.

* The series is underpinned by the principles for early years education as identified in Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage and takes into account the national daycare standards and the 'outcomes' for children as set out in Every Child Matters and laid down in the Children Act 2004.

* Each part of the series will focus on a different aspect of practice, highlight key elements of good practice and offer a benchmark for self-evaluation.

* The series encourages practitioners to be reflective in their practice and to see the quest for quality as a developmental process.

* The elements of quality in early years practice are often interdependent and there will be points of cross-referencing between parts of the series.

WORKING WITH PARENTS TO SUPPORT CHILDREN'S LEARNING

10 steps to quality

1 How do you ensure that a trusting, respectful relationship develops from the initial contact with parents and that the nursery environment is warm and welcoming to all parents and carers entering the setting?

2 How do you plan for flexibility to enable you to reach all parents, taking into account individual circumstances?

3 Do you understand and are you responsive to the cultures within your community when planning work with parents?

4 Are you able to offer the services of an interpreter where the parent's home language is not English?

5 What media do you use to enable you to reflect with a parent on their child's learning?Could you introduce other media to provide information?

6 How do you support parents in gathering observational information about their child at home?

7 How do you share your expertise within the Foundation Stage and knowledge of young children as learners with parents? Do you produce any written material (for example, leaflets and handouts) to guide parents in supporting their child's learning?

8 How is your fundamental commitment to partnership with parents reflected through your daily practice and the nursery environment?

9 How are parents encouraged to become involved in their child's play and learning in the nursery?

10 How do managers and leading practitioners support less experienced or confident staff in sharing information with parents?

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Working with parents to support children's learning

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By Jane Drake, a partnership advisory teacher in Leeds and author of Planning Children's Play and Learning in the Foundation Stage and Organising Play in the Early Years (David Fulton) Parents are 'children's first and most enduring educators' (Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, QCA 2000), making partnership with parents and carers essential if early years practitioners are to plan effectively for a child's learning.

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(Pages 2, 3 and 4)