Nursery gives children the best start. They can develop skills and interests in a nurturing and knowledgeable environment, adding to the love and support they receive at home. Sharing responsibility for a child’s wellbeing and happiness can be daunting for parents. Building a communicative relationship between home and nursery gives confidence to parents that their child is in the best hands.
At Hackenthorpe Hall we reassure parents that they aren’t alone and have support in their corner through tantrums and teething.
How to build positive relationships with parents
We understand how important positive relationships with parents are. Each parent has different expectations, goals, and needs from a childcare provision; we consider building a relationship that considers all of this is vital.
We set out expectations early
The key to being on the same page is clear communication from the start.
Sharing our nursery’s ethos, vision, approaches, policies and procedures with parents is helpful when they join our nursery.
Communicate effectively
We find that personal and digital communication helps build those strong relationships. Our nursery manager is visible to parents and is on hand to help with concerns and offer expert advice. At Hackenthorpe Hall Nursery, we aim to deal with enquiries and important messages through online communication platforms as soon as possible; ensuring parents are heard and keeping face-to-face interactions positive.
Build strong child-practitioner relationships
Key workers help to make a child (and their family) feel a sense of belonging. We find that having one key contact throughout the nursery reassures parents that their child is individually understood and nurtured. Two-way communication to add and update children’s likes and dislikes helps us to keep relationships strong. Sharing a common interest, in Paw Patrol for instance, can help children settle into nursery.
When a new nursery practitioner joins the team, it can take a little while to get to know all the children. Access to children’s online profiles on Famly app ensures practitioners can start forging relationships immediately.
Drop-off and pick-up times can be rushed, and with busy parent schedules, it can be difficult for parents to share milestones their child has achieved at home. We find that giving parents the choice to upload images, comments and videos of experiences and milestones via nursery software can strengthen the connection between home and nursery.
We try to use as many ways as possible to invite parents to join in with nursery. Here are a few things that we try to do on a regular basis:
Stay-and-play sessions
We organise these sessions throughout the year, parents can stay and play with their child for 45 minutes to an hour. Parents have lots of opportunities to make crafts with their child or play with the provision in the room. These sessions bridge the gap between home and nursery and gives
the children the confidence to explore the surroundings with their parent’s. Children can show their parents what they have been learning, and it gives parents the opportunity to talk to staff about their progress. It is also a perfect opportunity to showcase our provision that children enjoy.
Share useful advice and resources
There are lots of valuable resources parents can access online. We feel like we have a good bond with our parents and know the children well enough to identify our parent audience. We share relevant articles and activities via our nursery platform to help support busy parents.
For example, questions about nursery funding, directing parents to helpful articles that we hope will help parents understand the application process.
Nursery social events
We hold Sport's Day, Graduation, Summer Fair, Christmas Fair, Parent's Evening and regular Stay & Play Sessions over the course of the year. These are sent out to parents in advance on our yearly calendar of events, so parents are aware of what is happening over the year.
Once a year we send out Parent questionnaires to ensure we monitor any issues or give parents an opportunity to express any concerns/issues, or generate some positive feedback.