Partnership with children and families by Alaidh Smyth

Background information

alaidh123 — 2025-04-29 11:06:36 UTC

Our daycare is situated within a small village in the rural countryside. Within our setting there are four rooms for the different age ranges of our children; baby room, toddler room, preschool room and after school room;

Age ranges:

Baby room -> 5 months - 1 year 6 months
Toddler room -> 1 year 6 months - 3 years
Preschool room -> 3 years - 5 years
After school room -> 5 years- 10 years

Number of children per room:

Baby room -> 6 children (2 staff).
Toddlers -> 4-6 children per adult so 12 in total (2/3 staff).
Preschool -> 12 children (room can only hold 12 with 2 staff).
After school -> 12-14 children (can only hold this amount with 2 staff).

Working together! ( My Nursery Pal)

alaidh123 — 2025-04-29 13:38:30 UTC

In our setting we value the relationships we have with our parents to the highest degree! We ensure regular updates are provided during the day to parents through an app called “My Nursery Pal”. Each room throughout the day care has their own iPad (for staff use only), all which have the My Nursery pal app downloaded and set up. This app allows the staff within each room to update every single child’s parents on the things they have got up to during the day; between drop off and pickup.

The app allows the following information to be shared to parents individually about their children:

meals (breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner)
Sleeps (usually more so for babies/toddler rooms)
Medicines given (parents will have signed a form and explained how much of specific medicine their child is due to be given and timings.)
Daily activities (walks, craft, games, garden ext)
Photos (each child’s photos are only posted into their personal profile)
Nappies (scheduled to be done in routine at 10:40am-ish and 2:30pm, however nappies are checked regularly to provide the utmost comfort for the children)

Volunteering Opportunities!

alaidh123 — 2025-04-30 11:21:31 UTC

Throughout the calendar year we are privileged to have the numerous opportunities to go on trips to the zoo, open farms, the beach ext.

The children love being able to get outside and out on “and adventure” as some like to call it! Along with our staff, we encourage and promote our parents to join us on these trips by volunteering.

By this we are able to involve our parents and allow the opportunity for parents to model positive role model behaviour to all the children. Parental involvement within trips allows the fostering of a supportive and cohesive system , which fosters a sense of community snd camaraderie between parents, staff and the children themselves. The parents will also be helping the setting staff by providing additional support and extra hands, making the trips run more smoothly. More adults means better supervision and ensuring the safety of all children.

Without our parents it would be likely these trips could not happen, so we appreciate all support we get from our parents.

Resource lists (1)!

alaidh123 — 2025-04-30 11:37:10 UTC

Upcoming events- We provide a monthly agenda on our My Nursery Pal app along with displaying the agenda on the door of each room along with in the foyer for parents to have a look at and for them to know what events are coming up each month for their children to allow preparation time.

Volunteering opportunities- As stated before, we value and appreciate all volunteering that our parents do in order to help us! When an event comes up that we require volunteers from our parents, we provide volunteering sign up sheets in each of our 4 rooms. These sign up sheets are also posted into each child’s profile on the My Nursery Pal app in case some parents are not doing drop off or collection of their child on certain days, this ensures that parents know that they are always thought off and that their presence is important to us!

Resource lists (2)!

alaidh123 — 2025-04-30 11:37:42 UTC

Community News- Our daycare works in collaboration with local events, services and resources available to our children and their families. One example of this would be; our local speech therapy clinic. The daycare works in partnership with the clinic to coordinate visits to our setting for o-site therapy sessions for children who get help with their speech and language development. This partnership allows for children to receive the necessary support in a familiar environment and also offers parent’s guidance and resources on how to support their child’s communication skills at home. We also work in partnership with the local library, the National Autistic Society, cultural integration services, mental health services, special educational consultants, behavioural therapy providers and many more.

Contact Information-

phone number: 07102030405

Email- daycarenursery@btinternet.com

Feedback and suggestions- At the front door of our setting we have a comments, feedback and suggestions box. This box is for parents to give us feedback on how they feel, things we could add, suggestions for trips or to add new resources or anything they would like to tell us or suggest to us about the setting.

Additional aid!

alaidh123 — 2025-04-30 15:27:26 UTC

Through our partnership with special needs consultants we are able to provide for our children who may have specific needs along with helping parents gain professional advice.

Parents can receive professional guidance and be shown tailored strategies to help with their children’s specific needs, these in turn can be helpful for them to support their child’s development more effectively.

Below are a few of the agencies we are partnered with and they are more than willing to provide advice and guidance on any queries raised.

Family support NI:

https://www.familysupportni.gov.uk/Search/Results?page=3&sTypeID=99&serviceID=115&distance=0&order=2&vacancies=0&specialneeds=0&pickup=0&vouchers=0&flexible=0&funded=0&taxfree=0&breakfast=0

Sense:

https://www.sense.org.uk/our-services/centres/sense-northern-ireland/sense-services-in-northern-ireland/family-support-service-in-northern-ireland/

New to the area? Different cultural background?

alaidh123 — 2025-04-30 16:52:30 UTC

Over the past 5 to 6 years we as a whole setting have been collaborating with local resources to broaden our understanding of new cultures and languages. As there had been newcomer families from various different countries who in turn speak a variation of languages in our area and joining our nursery. We felt it was important to attend workshops and language classes to familiarise ourselves with the parents and children and to make them more comfortable. In turn these services are able to help the parents, they aid the parents to navigate local systems, understand their rights and access community resources.

Partnering with cultural organisations allows parents to grasp an understanding of the local culture, customs and social norms, easing their transition into the new area.

An example of a local resource which supports parents and helps them integrate into the community through community activities, classes or educational resources is, Bangor Library.

Bangor library often holds story time sessions for children, language classes for adults and cultural events like local author reading or art exhibitions.

https://www.librariesni.org.uk/libraries/county-down/bangor-carnegie-library/

Some important links!

alaidh123 — 2025-05-01 13:19:29 UTC

The Special Needs Parents podcast- this podcast aids parents who may be struggling by showing them they are not alone and that there is always support for them and their children!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3xHMvKe7q2EHhk8kORgY8F?si=M9kNz9wtStues1FSvOWgKw

Podcast by myself for staff!

alaidh123 — 2025-05-06 12:12:37 UTC

This podcast is for practitioners within our setting, to explain the importance of the information displayed within this pinboard!

I hope you find it helpful!