Page 69: A first week of teaching - how I support parents as their children start school.
and what a week it has been ...
Today's page follows on from the end of my first week of teaching. Following on from the fantastic opportunity that we have to be able to conduct home visits with all of our families, on Monday, the doors opened and another school year began. I have had the most fabulous first week and I am so excited to see where the year will go. Particularly as Monday drew to a close, when I arrived home and took the opportunity to sit and reflect, I casted my mind back to this time last year, welcoming in that cohort and reflecting upon the progress they made, now seeing them in Reception. It is a privilege to teach Nursery and form such a key role in this vital stage of a child's development. I am excited for the year ahead.
After that slightly rambling start, I decided for today's page I wanted to share how we start off our school year, particularly emphasising how we support out parents through this huge life step (both for the child and the parent!)
It may sound simple, (which really it is), however, establishing strong relationships is all through clear and consistent communication. It is pretty big for the parents, their babies are leaving home and entering the big new world of school! Parents need to be reassured that we know exactly what we are doing and have everything planned and prepared perfectly. We do! We always do, however, this needs to be communicated. This all begins from when the parents accepts their child's school place. As a school, it is our duty to ensure the parents feel involved and clued up on everything they might possibly need to know. We begin this work in the summer term.
First, we invite the children to a stay and play session. Here, we invite the children and parents to join us for an hour where they can meet the teacher, explore the classroom, listen to key welcomes/hellos, information shared, and a chance to discuss with the class teacher any questions. As a teacher, it is super important to ensure you have had a chance to speak to all parents and children piecing together the first stages, meeting you, and the school environment. At the stay and play session, this is where we inform our parents about our home visits, emphasising how important these are and rearranging any clashes in time. This then brings us onto September. The home visits. This is where myself and TA will enter each of the family homes. It the main stage in forming early relationships. A chance for the child and parents to get to know you (and vice versa), as well as being able to find out needed key school information such as food allergies, any questions to be answers and then in terms of forming strong relationships, the most important part - the general chit chat. This beings us onto starting school.
The first day. When conducting the home visit, I ensured to have prepped the parents on what to expect, sharing how the day will look and what to do when bringing them into school. This already gets the morning to a smooth start. I then support the parents to leave ASAP reassuring the care for their children with a smile on my face and provided a needed hug when often required. As a school, we use the app seesaw. Throughout the first week or so, I ensure to make an extra effort to post regularly sharing with the parents all the fun we are getting up to in school. I further follow this up when dismissing the children, individually sharing one great thing they did that day. This logistics of carrying this out every day can get hard, however it is really important and lovely thing to do. Nothing better than celebrating success (plus the parents love it too)!
So in a brief summary, this is how I support my parents who their children begin school. It is always about communicating, listening and sharing stories. A final thing I did this year was on each child's first day, take a classroom picture with a 'my first day in .... primary school' banner, to give to parents the next day. Taking no more than an hour to print and back, they are a lovely keep sake for the parents to have for the rest of the year. I most definitely will do this on their last day too!
I will end today's page on a simple but accurate summary quote of why it is fundamental to foster and advocate strong teacher to parent relationships.
'No school can work well for children if parents and teachers do not act in partnership on behalf of the children's best interests.' - Dorothy Cohen.
-Miss Yeoman.
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