Partnership ensures children are supported with their educational, social and emotional needs. It also supports children with their well being and future successes.

At The Flower Cottage we use 'Development Matters' as our base, which is a Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS. It supports us with guidance to make summative assessments on individual children.

Please access the link below to read the guidance by scrolling to page 11, numer 7. You will be able to read the importance of working with parents/carers.

Development Matters - Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage (publishing.service.gov.uk)

At The Flower Cottage, working in partnership with parents/carers from the very start of the journey is at the heart of everything we do, it helps us as key workers provide effective teaching and learning to support development and focus on the child's interest. It is an important element in our practice and standard every day routine. The Flower Cottage welcomes parents/carers with open arms and they become part of the family, they are treated with respect and thoughts, wishes and contributions are respected and taken on board! Working in partnership also enables us to learn all about the child, their culture and background information, what they enjoy doing/interests and what they need support with. These help us build a picture of the child and the foundations of the child's education. 

How do we encourage and promote parent partnership here at the setting?

Please see some of the different things that work for our high quality childminding service:

• Regular ongoing communication - Firstly, this is vital. We need to make sure we foster two way communication.
• Email - I also do regularly use email to send multiple documents or larger quantities of important information. Invoices are also sent VIA email, PDF or WORD, depending on what the parents/carers prefer.
• WhatsApp communication to individual parents/carers - Easy and simple to navigate. I have tried a number of methods to discover the most effective way to liaise with my parents/carers here at the setting, including a variety of apps. However, the most effective way for us has proven to be WhatsApp. This may not work for all settings, but it works for us. All observations, weekly overviews, updates and short snapshots of important information are sent using this tool.
• Multiple platforms - I use multiple platforms to showcase our setting, events and the children's learning, including: Facebook, Instagram and my Website. You can access these by clicking on the social icons on the 'Home' page.
• Phone call - Some parents/carers may prefer discuss over the phone which is absolutely fine! This is a method I use when having meetings with parents/carers to discuss learning and development, updating folders and any enquiries they may have, especially if they cannot attend the setting. 
• Inviting families to our trips/events and parent partnership sessions - We love having our families attend our outings with us! It is a great way to spend time together, catch up and have some wonderful chats about the child/ren. We have an annual birthday party and graduation party where parents/carers can come together to communicate with each other and have lots of fun celebrating with their child/ren. 

Please click on 'Learning and development booklet' in the drop down box to read all about the home learning book bags that are provided for parents/carers.