How do you share your concerns with anxious parents? It is delicate work that requires careful thought and sensitivity. There is no template - each parent is unique, as is every conversation.
Here is an example of how I approached this work with one of our parents.
A few months ago, I spoke with the father of 3-year-old Malik. I raised my concerns about Malik’s physical development. Khalid, his father, shared his concerns and we agreed on ways we could help Malik. You can read this here.
Since then, we’ve had several chats about Malik’s physical development, focussing on how we support him at home and nursery.
A few weeks ago, I wanted to tell Khalid something about Malik’s progress – I looked out for him at pick-up time.
Sam: Hi Khalid - I wanted to say how excited I was to see Malik joining in our bike project* He really enjoyed it - it was a struggle to get the bike back from him!
Khalid: I know. He hasn't stopped talking about it – he was so happy!
Sam: It’s wonderful to see him so keen about something. Do you think you’ve seen improvements in his physical development?
Khalid: Definitely. We’ve been going to the park more often and using the bike we borrowed. He’s not bumping into things as much. He still falls over, but not as often - a few months ago he was constantly falling but it’s about half that now.
Sam: That’s so good to hear! We’ve noticed that Malik is becoming more confident, so we’re challenging him with a harder obstacle course. He’s showing us that he’s ready for it - once he’s practised a few times with an adult, he’s well away with his friends. He enjoys it so much – you’ve only to look at his face!
Khalid: Yes, he has so much fun - we love our outings to the park now. Malik’s mum and I are very happy about how well he’s doing - and grateful to you all.
*The Bike Project is an initiative that encourages physical activity, being out in the fresh air and partnerships with parents. We take our families out to the local open space and teach the children how to ride a balance bike, do some bike maintenance and navigate roads and pedestrians. The families are then allowed to take the balance bikes home for 5 weeks to practise these skills.
This was an affirming conversation for both Khalid and me – one that showed how important it is to work in partnership with parents. Our collaboration has clearly benefitted Malik’s confidence and physical development.
The EEF says, ‘Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children’s learning, and levels of parental engagement are consistently associated with better academic outcomes’.
The Teaching and Learning Toolkit states that ‘the average impact of parental engagement approaches is about an additional four months’ progress over the course of a year.’
Tips for nurturing parental partnership
- work alongside the parents – they are the experts on their child, so acknowledge this and show that you want them to share their knowledge
- demonstrate an interest in the child and family – catch up with them regularly for a chat, checking if they have any concerns or things they’d like to share
- invite the parents in to see their child in nursery
- have shared aims and ways of supporting the child – assess and monitor these with the parents (as we did with Malik)
- Make sure that you are doing these things with all parents. You will notice some children more than others and, similarly, some parents will find it easier than others to approach you with their concerns
Questions for reflection:
- How did you engage a ‘harder to reach family’ recently?
- As a team, how could you further develop parental partnerships in your setting?
Want to know more?
EEF: Working with parents to support children’s learning
EEF: Early Years Toolkit - Parental engagement
EEF: video clips showing how to promote Physical Development (scroll down)