The Early Years Foundation Stage is built around four themes: A Unique Child; Positive Relationships; Enabling Environments; Learning and Development. Although partnerships with parents permeate the EYFS, it is within the theme of Positive Relationships that Parents as Partners is one of the commitments. EYFS Principles into Practice card 2.2 states: 'Parents are children's first and most enduring educators. When parents and practitioners work together in early years settings, the results have a positive impact on children's development and learning.'
In putting this commitment into practice, there are three key areas for consideration: communication, respecting diversity and learning together.
Here we focus on communication, particularly listening to parents, because this is the fundamental first step in respecting and getting to know the family and engaging and involving parents in their children's learning. The term 'parents' includes birth parents as well as carers such as other family members, guardians and foster carers.
The previous article in this series, 'Attachment and the role of the key person' (9 October), highlighted the importance of listening to parents as the key to understanding their children. It is easy to claim that settings are good at 'working with parents', when in reality they are good at telling them what to do rather than listening to them as co-carers and educators.
When settings ask parents what they need from practitioners, the comments often include the following.
'Someone who:
- really likes my child and knows them well
- listens, and doesn't just tell us what to do
- understands if we are a bit late arriving
- cares about me as well as my child
- gives me time to talk
- smiles and has a sense of humour
- helps my child learn
- keeps me informed.'
Parents and practitioners share a joint interest in, and responsibility for, children's development and learning. Both are crucial in building children's self-esteem and dispositions to learn, although they bring different perspectives and expertise.
Parents are experts on their own child, while practitioners are general experts on children's learning and development. Children feel more confident and positive about themselves and their learning when parents and practitioners work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect. They may not always understand the words adults use, but young children have a good radar for body language, tone and the 'feel' of an interaction, and they will know if they and their parents are liked and respected.
The first contact that parents have with practitioners sets the tone for future relationships. The warm smile that greets a parent as they walk through the door conveys a simple message - 'You are welcome here'. The lack of a smile, however, can say, 'You are not welcome here'. Listening involves tuning in to the communicator, not just hearing what is said. To listen carefully and respectfully to what parents tell them, practitioners have to be welcoming and to make it easy to relax and talk.
Families are all different. Children may live with one or both parents, with other relatives or carers, with same-sex parents or in an extended family. Practitioners may find some family members easier to communicate with than others, and some parents and parenting styles easier to value. It is important to make time to reflect on why this might be. Every person brings their own cultural and social background to their job. This may clarify the practitioner's understanding of some parents and family patterns, but it can also make it difficult to listen properly to others. Effective parenting can take many forms.
Many settings claim to 'welcome' parents or have an 'open door' policy, but is this welcome offered to all parents? What about the parents who do not conform to the 'norms'? What about those who are experiencing difficult personal circumstances? What about those who hold different values or live different lifestyles to practitioners in the setting? In order to improve the quality of what is offered to children and families, settings need to be honest about which parents are usually welcomed and listened to.
Sometimes practitioners worry about communicating with parents and children who are learning English as an additional language. But you do not have to be bilingual, or know many words of another language, to make people feel welcome.
Parents will feel valued by the early years setting if:
- they always get a warm and genuine greeting
- practitioners make an effort to learn a few words of greeting in the children's home languages.
- they do not see other parents being treated better than they are
- staff pronounce parents' and children's names correctly
- staff are flexible and able to cope with the unexpected twists and turns of family life
- resources and displays represent the ethnic, cultural and social diversity in society
- they can see their own family background and culture represented as well as those of others.
When practitioners are friendly professionals who listen to parents and demonstrate a genuine interest in their children, parents come to like and trust them, and mutual respect can flourish.
Arrival and collection times are crucial in allowing this sort of informal but important communication to take place. In a large setting it may be more difficult to organise time for children's key people to talk with parents. Some parents will be working and infrequent visitors. Settings can encourage using e-mail to keep in touch and the sharing of photos. However, it is important that regular times are made for the key person and parents to meet and when necessary, there is somewhere private for parents and practitioners to talk.
NATIONAL STRATEGIES RESOURCES
- The Early Years Foundation Stage: setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. DCSF, May 2008 (ref: 00261-2008PCK-EN)
- Foundation Stage Parents: Partners in Learning (seven case studies) DfES 2005 (Ref: DfES 1210-2005G)
- Parents as Partners in Early Learning case studies. DCSF, 2008 (ref: 00196-2008PCK-EN)
- Playing and learning together - a DVD of practical examples of how parents and carers can get involved in their children's early learning, building on work with parents, carers and practitioners. DCSF, 2007 (ref: 00671-2007DVD-EN). Also with subtitles and audio in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu (ref: 00111-2008DVD-EN); Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Romanian, Turkish (ref: 00109-2008DVD-EN); Chinese, French, Polish, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese (ref: 00108-2008DVD-EN)
- Supporting Children Learning English as an Additional Language DCSF, 2007 (order no: 00683-2007BKT-EN)
These publications are available for download and may be available to order from: www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications or www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs.
DCSF Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham NG15 ODJ, tel: 08456022260, fax: 08456033360,textphone: 08456055560, e-mail: dcsf@prolog.uk.com.
Please quote the appropriate reference number.
LEADING AND MANAGING LISTENING
Setting leaders and managers have a key role to play in supporting practitioners who listen to parents. They should model positive relationships and make clear links for staff between working with parents and improving the quality of what is offered to children.
Leaders and managers will be more effective if the local authority (LA) supports their work. Many LAs have been involved in Parents as Partners in Early Learning (PPEL) and similar projects. The PPEL project has shown how important it is for all partners to work together to reach out to parents and also highlighted the importance of a co-ordinated approach.
The city of York's Transition Toolkit is an example of how an LA can support and challenge settings to improve their listening to parents.
Transitions from one setting to another, and even within the setting itself, can be stressful times for children and their parents - times when they need sensitive support. York's toolkit aims to help practitioners develop positive relationships with parents and carers at these times. It is designed for staff working with children from birth to six years old and stresses the themes, principles and commitments of the EYFS. It has suggestions for effective practice and ideas on how to extend this further.
The Transition Toolkit has not only improved practice at times of transition, but also directly contributed to many initiatives, one being the establishment of parent networks or forums where groups of parent representatives work with staff on a range of projects.
Some of these networks are using parental expertise in the setting. Examples include parents who work professionally as artists, landscape gardeners or sculptors being involved with children. Networks also organise social events, set up parent and toddler groups and invite guest speakers to talk about topics of interest. Some settings are working with other agencies to provide advice on how to manage children's challenging behaviour and improve parents' literacy and mathematical skills.
The LA is listening to all involved and using this ongoing consultation with parents in the development of future LA services for families.
For further details of the Transition Toolkit, contact Naomi Watson on naomi.watson@york.gov.uk or phone 01904 553025
