Positive relationships

4. Build strong connections with families and listen to what they say about their child.

“Parents play the key role in children’s learning. They are experts on their own children and they are a child’s first and enduring educators.”

NCB: Parents, Early Years and Learning Activities Helen Wheeler and Joyce Connor

“When parents and practitioners work together in early years settings, the results have a positive impact on children’s development and learning.”

Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, 2017

To what extent do you:

  • plan in time and consider how to most effectively find out about and understand the life stories behind each individual child and their family?

  • make time to talk with families about what matters to them – including fathers – and truly value what they share with you?

  • truly value and use the information gathered from families to improve your knowledge and understanding of each individual child and use this to inform practice and provision?

  • strive to find out about, understand and overcome barriers for those families who struggle to engage fully during transitions and beyond?

What would a new child and their family know about you / their key person (e.g. your interests, likes/dislikes) before they start school? Why do you think this is important? Talk about this as a staff.

Resources

A toolkit for engaging parents and families

  • Look at section 3: Home/school/partnership settings.  Very useful resource for encouraging thinking and finding solutions for further developing parental engagement in your school.

Provider-Parent Relationships: 7 Keys to Good Communication

Action for Children - Effective Relationships with Vulnerable Parents to Improve Outcomes for Children and Young People: Final Study Report

EYFS Principles into Practice: Card 2.2 - Positive Relationships: Parents as Partners

Child and Family Perspectives on Starting School

Conversations Worth Having

All About Me - Key Person Sheet

EYFS Principles into Practice: Card 2.4 - Positive Relationships: Key Person

5.  Support families, giving ideas and information about getting ready for school

“In every small community there should be a service for children and their families. This service should honour the needs of young children and celebrate their existence. It should also support families, however they are constituted within the community.”

Pen Green

To what extent do you:

  • ensure that the school ethos, routines, and systems enable effective, positive communication with all parents

  • ensure that your school ethos, prospectus, policies, website etc. promote Leicestershire’s shared vision for school readiness?Are systems and materials current and relevant? What messages do they give to your prospective families?

  • involve all families throughout their time in YR, giving them chances to contribute information on their child’s learning and development, and opportunities to be involved in everyday school life?

  • share information about the curriculum and equip all parents to be able to support their child’s learning and development at home - in a way that is meaningful, relevant and achievable for them (this assumes an approach that is not uniform for all!)?

Do you know who is/are the significant people in the lives of each child in your class? Do you know who is the person who may be the most likely to engage, take on suggestions and follow them up with the child (this could be a grandparent, an older sibling, etc.)? Do you make a point of trying to engage and communicate positively with this person?

Resources

The Reggio Emilia approach to Parent and Community Involvement

Janet Lansbury’s website - Elevating Child Care

  • Janet’s website gives access to advice for parents/carers on a wide range of issues/worries/concerns.  Great for sharing with parents, via display boards and especially via social media.

Home Start website – support and friendship for families

  • The Big Hopes Big Future website is aimed at parents/carers with lots of helpful tips, activities and games parents can try with their children.  They are designed to help get children feel prepared for starting school, and make that first day less scary.  There are four categories – building routines, fun and games, keeping clean and reading and writing.

8 Ways Teachers and Schools can Communicate with Parents in 2019

Transition to Primary School - Evidence Request Bank Development Project, Parenting Across Scotland

  • This report provides an overview of the factors that affect children’s transition to primary school, exploring if there are factors which mean that some children manage the process better than others.  It explores the role of attachment during the transition period; what can help in managing transitions; and what the barriers are for services and families.

Mind the Gap - Supporting Children through Transition

  • Produced by The Early Years Inclusion and Childcare Service, ‘Mind the Gap’ is a set of booklets which are full of ideas and guidance for childcare providers to help children through transition. The pack is full of simple ideas to help make transitions as stress free as possible.

Mind the Gap Top Tips

Transition 2 – Supporting Parents and Carers

Transition 4 – New Setting

Ready for School – Leaflet developed by STEP

Home Learning Environment eLearning module – Leicestershire County Council

  • Purchase a licence by clicking on the green ‘ticket’ icon.  Only one licence is required per school / setting; this will provide unlimited access to all eLearning modules for one financial year beginning April.  Once an ‘eLearning’ ticket has been purchased, you will be sent an email containing instructions including log in details and password.

6. Give plenty of time for transition talk and visits recognising that some children and families may need extra support

“They will respond in different ways, some with confidence, others with more apprehension, but so many adjustments are likely to have profound and long lasting effects if the importance of maintaining coherence and continuity is not well understood. Children’s confidence will be enhanced when changes happen gradually, and when time is prioritised to support these transitions with sensitive planning and preparation.”

Seamless Transitions – supporting continuity in young children’s learning, Primary National Strategy, 2006

To what extent do you:

  • understand how much emotional support each child and their parents are likely to need during transitions and after?

  • plan and implement effective support for all children and families, during transition and beyond (this assumes more than information sharing)?

  • find opportunities to talk with all relevant early years providers (including childminders) to identify those children and families who may need extra support?

  • use information gathered about family dynamics (including attachments / positive relationships / child’s sense of themselves in the family unit), e.g. during home visits, to inform transition?

  • help to support/nurture children’s self-esteem and parent/child relationships where necessary by:
    - modelling/helping to focus on positives as well as negatives
    - supporting parents to have realistic expectations of their child
    - supporting parents to recognise and understand an increasing range of their child’s behaviours, idiosyncracies, fascinations, etc.
    - offering strategies for parents to support their child during times/events when their behaviour could potentially be challenging

Would families feel that your transition process is a ‘one size fits all’ model? Is it flexible enough to cater for individual need? Is this communicated effectively to parents by all parties – e.g. teachers, head, secretary? Would a prospective parent feel confident that you know what they are worried about; looking forward to; what they want to know / need support with?

Resources

SEN and Disability in the Early Years: A toolkit. Council for Disabled Children and 4Children

Sensory Processing resource pack

  • This resource pack will assist with the identification of possible difficulties and support the implementation of strategies.

Working with Children with Sensory Processing Differences in Early Years Settings

National Autistic Society website - Starting or changing school

Seamless transitions

Why it matters to transform parent involvement from early childhood to primary school

Providing emotional support to parents during and following transitions

Mind the Gap - Supporting Children through Transition

  • Produced by The Early Years Inclusion and Childcare Service, ‘Mind the Gap’ is a set of booklets which are full of ideas and guidance for childcare providers to help children through transition. The pack is full of simple ideas to help make transitions as stress free as possible.

 Transition 7 – Children in Care

Welcoming Adopted Children

  • Starting nursery or pre-school can be a daunting time for any child. For children who have been adopted, there can be many additional layers of complexity. This short guide gives an overview of some issues facing adopted children and their families, and practical strategies to help nurseries and families work together to enable an adopted child to settle in and to thrive.

Starting School for Children in Care

  • Leicestershire guidance promoting partnership working so that children access a school placement with seamless transitions.

7. Gather information from other professionals and use this to plan and provide for appropriate learning and care

“By taking account of children's previous experiences, school experiences can be adapted to minimise changes and discontinuities. Then the ‘human’ seedling will continue to thrive.”

Transition to School: Looking Forward, Kay Margetts, 1999

To what extent do you:

  • adopt a humble and down-to-earth approach to working in respectful partnership with other professionals during transitions?

  • recognise and respect the knowledge and understanding early years providers have of individual children and their families, valuing their expertise and the information they share?

  • plan in time and resources (e.g. funding) in advance to enable visits to and from feeder settings throughout the year?

  • use children’s existing learning journeys, in all formats, to support transition?

Do you know about the routines and expectations that children are already used to? How well is this reflected in your provision? This should not be about the child fitting into your existing routines and expectations. If you are not yet aware, how could you find out?

Resources

The importance of supporting a child’s transition: a Pen Green observation

  • This case study, written to the child, not only demonstrates high quality, effective transitions within a nursery, but gives insight into the value of regular visits and the importance of developing attachment with a key person over time. It places the child at the heart of the ongoing process, demonstrating the importance of an individual approach to transition which recognises the uniqueness of the child. The principles here should also underpin transition into school, from reception into Key Stage 1 and beyond.

EYFS Principles into Practice: Card 2.1 Positive Relationships: Respecting Each Other

Card 8: Transitions

Minimising change during transition

  • Ideally, we should try to minimise the amount of changes a child and their family experience during transitions. In finding out/sharing the seemingly small but very important details, we can be better informed to plan transition which reduces the discontinuities which might arise.  This template provides a starting point to support discussions between setting and school with the aim of promoting continuity for a smooth transition.

Helen Sanderson Associates website - personalised transition planning

  • Helen Sanderson advocates using a person centred approach to support children through transition.  The ‘good day / bad day’ person-centred thinking tool helps you to have conversations about what a good day is like, you can then look at the same detailed information for a bad day. This helps us to learn what is important to the person – it is one way to learn about what matters to each child, and what support they need to have more good days and fewer bad days.

Overview of a child’s week

  • This simple blank timetable from the Mind the Gap materials is designed to capture what the child’s week looks like.  Most useful to find out if the child attends other settings (e.g. childminders) or spends time with different main carers or extended family throughout the week.  It can be used to gain insight into behavioural patterns and support children through transition.

8. Share and value relevant records and information to ensure continuity and ongoing progress in learning

“There is a well-documented need for professionals working with children and their families to work more closely together. To do so it is important that all professionals have equal respect for each other and the various roles they play. The professionals involved with the children may come from a range of sectors including Early Years, Schools, Health or Social Care. It is important that a common language is used in a format that can be understood and is useful to all concerned.”

Effective Information Sharing During Transitions - PACEY

To what extent do you:

  • work with other professionals to find out about children’s current levels of development / next steps / learning preferences / needs (including medical) / vulnerabilities?

  • value and respect the professional knowledge and judgements of early years providers?

  • know which children were eligible for EYPP, how this was spent, the level of parental involvement in this and what worked well?

  • know which children have Education Health Care Plans / emerging needs for whom early intervention has been implemented?

  • use information gained from reading children’s transition progress summaries, including the recommendations, to inform planning and provision?

  • ensure that GDPR does not negatively impact effective information sharing?

How would you enable a local childminder who minds one child due to start in your class to effectively share information about the child and family?

Resources

Leicestershire’s Progress from the Start

ECAT (Every Child a Talker)

Child Monitoring Tool

  • The child monitoring tool enables practitioners to assess the developmental level of children’s speech, language and communication. It is structured across interlinked 4 strands which.  This is a powerful and informative tool and should be used on a regular basis to link outcomes to learning language across the provision.

Early Years Pupil Premium - action plans and guidance

  • Guidelines and resources on eligibility, administration of the funding and promoting the funding to parents.  Information and resources to support leaders and managers in making the best choices to make the biggest difference when spending pupil premium.

Leicestershire’s Early Learning Guidelines

  • The Early Learning Guidelines are designed to support practitioners in recording the achievements of children with additional needs, whose progress may not be as visible when using Development Matters.  These smaller steps will enable practitioners to record, in detail, children’s strengths, to highlight areas for development and to facilitate the planning of the next steps.

Education Endowment Foundation Early Years Toolkit

  • An accessible summary of educational research for early years teaching, designed to support practitioners who are making decisions about how to improve learning outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged children and young people. The Toolkit provides high quality information about what is likely to be beneficial based on existing evidence.  A variety of approaches to improving teaching and learning are presented, each summarised in terms of: average impact on attainment; cost and the strength of the evidence supporting it.

Mind the Gap - Supporting Children through Transition

  • Produced by The Early Years Inclusion and Childcare Service, ‘Mind the Gap’ is a set of booklets which are full of ideas and guidance for childcare providers to help children through transition. The pack is full of simple ideas to help make transitions as stress free as possible.

Transition 3 – Transitions throughout the day

Transition 5 – Transitions within the setting/school

Supporting Transition to Year 1 

  • This template and case study may be useful for sharing the strengths and areas for development of individual children and can be used to support conversations with year 1 teachers to facilitate a smooth transition. With thanks to Thorpe Acre Infant School.

Children Missing Education

  • Leicestershire guidance for identifying and maintaining contact with children missing, or at risk of going missing, from education.  Includes best practice guidance for children of non-statutory school age to ensure clear processes are in place for all children in the EYFS.

CME Best Practice Guidance