Parent Partnership
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Children and parents were welcomed into the setting with a gift pack of information and activities to support home learning.

Starting and Settling

• Children can bring their comforters to the setting and they have a drawer they can keep it in for safety when they are ready to not carry it everywhere, but preferably not dummies as they can effect speech development.
• Important words the child uses for parents, food, toileting, pain and their comforter would be helpful, especially if they get upset after being left
• Knowing about their favourite toys, stories and games as well as things they like to do can help me plan for their first few weeks to help them settle.
• Having photos of important people like mum and dad which are kept in the learning story folder can also be a comfort for children settling into a new setting
• Sharing the child's routine at home so we can match it as much as possible in the setting or at the very least try and compliment it.
• Sharing 'your child's story so far' with us  through photos and stories which will be added to their learning story folder so we can look at it with your child and get to know them better.

Keeping each other informed

• We will keep you informed of any changes in the setting, particularly if it may impact your child at home or in the setting, such as new children joining, so we can support your child together
• We will also keep you informed of any updates to policies and procedures
• We expect parents to inform us of any significant changes of circumstances that may impact the child so we can support your child together.

Keeping children healthy and safe
We work in partnership with parents

• to promote healthy eating and healthy lifestyles
• to promote and discuss the safeguarding of the child
•  keep each other informed of any accidents 
• to discuss and plan how to deal with behavioural concerns

Learning and development

• to share and discuss learning stories with the parents to gain their perspective and to help them see what and how their children are learning in the setting
• we use tapestry to communicate the learning stories and welcome the parents to make their own contributions
• we keep parents informed and involved in the planning for their child's learning

Supporting Parental involvement in their children's learning

• sharing child development theories
• sharing our approach to support development
• giving home learning ideas
• encouraging parental observations in their learning story folder
• inviting parents to stay and play sessions including story or song share
• inviting parents on outings sometimes on the weekend

Parent meetings and communication

• Regular meetings to share children's progress and planning for their next steps
• Termly meetings to discuss development reports 
• Learning stories shared through Tapestry
• Website, Facebook and Instagram
• Telephone, text, WhatsApp and email

English as an additional language

• Parents are encouraged to share important words in their home language. This is so I can understand the child if they use them or to comfort or offer clarification if they are finding it difficult to communicate.
• Parents are encouraged to share learning stories in their own language along with an English translation. I can scribe their spoken English if they are not confident in their written English.
• Parents are invited to share with us as a setting their cultural and religious events, this could be through photos, videos and an explanation.

Children with Special Educational or additional needs

• I will work closely with parents of children with additional needs and work out a needs profile with them which will help me to support their development.
• This can include goals we set together
• strategies to work on jointly
• any advice from outside agencies
• this profile will be reviewed regularly through daily feedback as well as the regular planning and developmental meetings .

Fairy gardens made by out families during our International Fairy Tea Party, one of our stay and play sessions.

The families were given a lovely parting gift as a memento of being at Bunnies and Butterflies when they left.