Working in Partnership: First contact !

[Ruthierhyme]

What are your first time Parents thoughts on the educational road ahead of them & their Children ?

Do you find they are nervous and unsure of how much input they can have in their children's learning or surprised to find out how open the doors are to their ideas ?

All thoughts & experiences welcomed .....

well, the amount of parents that are expecting and wanting us to teach them to read and write before leaving is astounding! far far too many. i have to explain re learning through play and leaving that till school! about how year r continues what we have started

but we do get the other extrmee with the ones who just use us for 3 hours peace!

most parents are helpful, we started the nursery rhyme of the week today and already had some positive comments

[sarahnev707]

As a childminder I am usually viewed as an expensive but flexible daycare solution - certainly not an educator. Despite trying to ask for feedback and encouraging talk about children's educational welfare, that's usually perceived as a school issue...

Sorry, that probably wasn't helpful :muted:

[Ruthierhyme]

Very helpful Sarah, thanks .. do you think that it points more to how the place of care is thought of, rather than the actual people running it or living there ?

[sarahnev707]

Absolutely... I tell parents I have a teaching degree, an NVQ3 in early years, NCMA quality first and that I'm doing a foundation degree...

I tell them that I will be following whatever Govt curriculum is current with their child...

I explain all about observing, planning, assessing... I go through what I do every day and how children play and how I make learning fun...

They are not interested... a number of parents have actually said, over the years, 'but they do all that at school' or 'why do you bother?'

I sent a 3 year old home with a 50+ page, fully referenced to Birth to 3 matters, full of photographs and relevant notes, learning and development memories diary not long ago on her last day... I have never heard from the family since. It nearly reduced me to tears!

Ah well, at least I know I'm doing it the very best I possibly can