Partnership with
Parents
Feedback 2017
Thank you for your
feedback responses, here are some of the lovely comments you made………………
“Clean and tidy”
“It’s fun to explore”
“We love the close
parent/child/staff relationship”
“…………. loves to come to
nursery”
“Good links between home
and nursery”
“Wide open area for kids to
enjoy”
“Love the blog, makes
parents feel involved”
“It is nice and nice staff”
“Keep parents well informed
about events”
“Plenty of toys and
activities for children to play with”
“Always take on board what
a parent asks”
“Doing different
activities”
“My child learns something
new everyday”
“All staff are very
friendly”
“Good location”
“Caring and supporting”
“Friendly staff”
“St Mary’s, one of the best
I have seen. Kids learn very quick and get very clever, treated like a family”
“Working excellent to
achieve the targets regarding children”
“I am very happy with the
nursery”
“Staff very respectful and
understanding”
Suggestions/Improvements
“The only thing I dislike
is that children go out to play in cold weather. I understand it’s good for
them but for the weaker children it is not”
Outdoor play is vital for ALL
children’s development. We have no children in nursery that have any medical
conditions that would limit how much time they spend outdoors. It is the parent’s
responsibility to ensure children are dressed appropriately for the changing
weather conditions.
Effective Practice – Outdoor Learning
22–36 months
Children can learn to make decisions, solve
problems and grow in confidence in their own abilities
outdoors and they need plenty of time to
investigate their outdoor environment purposefully. They will make predictions
about what may happen based on their previous play experiences and test out
these ideas and theories. Two-year-olds are exploratory by nature and are testing
their skills and keen to find out about everything they encounter, including
grass, stones, different levels of ground, sand, soil, twigs and leaves. They
are also interested in finding out through observing sounds or movement in the landscape
and love to dig and move matter such as leaves by sweeping, lifting with a
spade or kicking them along. All these activities help them to discover the
properties of materials and what they will do.
30–50 months
Children can discover new experiences and
revisit favourite ones outdoors. Their mobility and
enjoyment of the company of others means
investigations include using less obvious areas to play, such as a path running
behind a low line of plants. Children need opportunities for sustained outdoor play
with familiar materials as well as with less familiar resources such as a
parachute, which can be used in collaboration with other children and adults.
Enhanced communication skills support social and cooperative play and collaborative
endeavours such as this. Mounting and dismounting from fixed and mobile
equipment forms an interest in itself as children try out ways of travelling
across a low bench on a safe surface or crawling along a suitably safe
makeshift ‘assault course’.
40–60+ months
The outdoors is a place where children can
continue to learn by doing. They carry on building on the knowledge, skills and
understanding that they have already acquired to make sense of the world around
them. They are active learners, seeking information and continuing to question
and explore. Being outdoors provides a focus for different types of experiences
which support young children’s growing sense of confidence and autonomy. This
is enhanced by the enjoyment of new challenges, such as seeking and finding
treasure on a treasure hunt. Their enthusiasm to participate in outdoor experiences
is expanded as their social and communication skills develop and they seek out
and enjoy the company of adults and other children.
Understanding
a need for physical outdoor play contributes towards our ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted
grading as it is seen as good practice. The new guidance from Public Health
England states that children under 5 should have 180 minutes of physical exercise
daily.
“Just a little sheet of
paper, what they have had for snack, did they have a wee, what they did in
nursery”
I feel it is
important that in the 3 short hours children are in nursery, the practitioner’s
time should be spent with them. We have 30 children in a session which would
mean 30 daily reports filled out which can be quite time consuming as children
independently get involved with a wide variety of activities and don’t all do
the same things.
It is also
important to establish good partnerships with parents which develop best
through face to face conversations. Practitioners are always available on a
daily basis to speak to parents at drop off and collection times and can tell
you all about your child’s day.
The nursery
also has a blog which parents can access at any time from the comfort of their
own home which tells you lots of things about the exciting activities we have
been up to in nursery.
“Would be good if children
could go swimming”
This is
something we could look into. There would of course be a charge to parents and
it would depend on availability of local pools. I will research some prices and
find out how much interest there is from other parents.
Thank you so much for all your
feedback and suggestions.
