A rationale to highlight the importance of working in partnership with parents, sharing information relating to their child’s development and the systems that are in place to support this; which should include reference to the observations used, linked to the quality planning cycle to assist children’s development. Consideration should be given to the strategies used to ensure there are no barriers to engagement and how to achieve partnerships between the school and home.
You need to think about this term – who advocates developing a partnership, what evidence is there that this is positive for all children and what aspects of learning can it support?
Consider why it is important to share such information with parents. Do we need to be wholly transparent or offer some information in this format of meeting and reserve other information for less formal occasions?
Assessments are made in the early years based upon formative assessments of children through observations. How is this effectively explained to parents and how can you ensure parents that their individual child’s needs can be met in a large early years class as part of the planning cycle.
Here this statement is not necessarily just about the child’s barriers to learning (which can be considered) but about the parents own barriers to engagement with the school / setting. Are all parents involved in ‘school life’ and how can this be monitored or improved?
The written assignment allows you to think critically and evaluate the systems in place to support parent partnership and consider if this is effective.
Is there a difference in terms of the cultural context in how parents engage with the setting? For example, if you are focusing on play and the child’s interests how would a parent respond to this if their focus is firmly upon their child’s academic ability ready for transition to school? Does including the literacy / phonics development perhaps alleviate some of this discord relating to expectations?
What difference can such effective partnerships make to the child’s experience of school and their learning and development? The word count is relatively short, so remember to be concise and consider what the most pertinent points to be raised are.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of Assignment 2, students will have demonstrated:
2. Detailed understanding of the different techniques used within the ‘quality cycle’, to monitor, assess, record and report young children’s learning and development
3. Detailed understanding of the requirements of continuous assessment for learning within the Early Years’ context, with a particular focus on phonics
4. The ability to identify appropriate techniques and implement the ‘quality cycle’ for specific purposes.
5. The ability to communicate effectively with parents/significant others about children’s needs, progress and interests.