Transcript ICT - 4Children

The importance of the home
learning environment in
supporting communication
and language
Gamesley Early Excellence Centre
Derbyshire
Janet Ackers – Head of Centre
How we have evolved
Prior to 2006
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Purpose built Centre in 1973 in
middle of a ‘new build’ estate
(Manchester ‘overspill’)
Combined Centre Social
Services and Education
(Nursery School)
Library, Clinic, Church –
community building
Family Support, Community
and Adult Education
Early Excellence Centre (1999)
Post 2006 to present
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Creation of the GEEC Childcare
Community Interest Company –
for Children’s Centre designation
(April 2006) Including under 3’s
care, wrap around care for 3 – 5
year olds, out of school care for 4
– 11 year olds
Fully integrated care and
education for children birth to five
Out of school / holiday club for 4
– 11 year olds
Adult / community education on
site
Links with Gamesley Children’s
Centre
Nursery School and Day Care
company working together
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60 place maintained nursery school – the ‘over 3’s’ (term
time only)
16 daycare places in the ‘over 3’s’ (51 weeks, 7.30am to
6.00pm)
15 places in ‘baby room’ (51 weeks, 7.30am to 6.00pm)
20 places in ‘toddler room’ (51 weeks, 7.30am to
6.00pm except for most 2 year funded children who are
term time only)
40 places in before/after school and holiday club
for children aged 4 to 11 (51 weeks, 7.30am to 6.00pm)
‘To be the best we can be’
Our vision for the Centre is “to be the best
we can be”. This is embedded in all we
do and is the ethos of everyone who
works at the Centre. We aim to be a
reflective, progressive and inclusive
setting, providing high quality integrated
care and education and supporting the
needs of our children and families so that
children reach their full potential.
We work closely with parents, carers and the
community to ensure our children are happy and
confident to achieve, engage and persist and
that our environment and the experiences we
provide are fun, stimulating and challenging and
promote independence, communication,
exploration, enquiry and creativity. We treat all
children as unique individuals, they have their
own key person and staff keep subsequent
family members over the years so that families
have confidence in the workers’ ability and
strong relationships are built.
Our children make outstanding progress whilst
they are with us at the centre, many from a
starting point which is below age related
expectations. We view progress as children
achieving something new, that they haven’t
been able to do before. It is about: having a
sense of pride, persevering, engaging, making
changes, taking risks, challenging self, moving
on – however small the steps and having the
confidence and self esteem to do all of this. It is
not just about making progress in an academic
sense. We share all of this with parents.
We follow the EYFS framework closely and have
devised our own planning and assessment
documents based on the EYFS which inform the
implementation of the curriculum. We have
devised assessment wheels for each age group
(birth to 24 months, 18 to 36 months and 3 to
4+ years) and we translate a child's
achievements onto the wheels. We also keep a
progress and achievement record of
observations and children’s documented
learning/development, all of which are shared
with parents and inform our individual and
group planning.
Targeted interventions parents are
involved with
Every Child a Talker (ECAT) –
Communication and Language
 Every Child A Mover – Physical
Development
 The Leuven Scales of Well-being and
Involvement – Personal, Social and
Emotional development
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What is the home learning
environment and early home learning?
The kind of relationships and opportunities
that children experience where they live
 Everything that children do or experience
at home that influences their learning,
development and later achievement
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Roberts (2009) Early Home Learning Matters
The home learning environment
messages from research
“We need to begin with the firm belief that all
parents are interested in the development and
progress of their own children”
(Penn Green Centre)
But they sometimes need support to help their
children.
(Parents as Partners in Early Learning Project 2008)
Parenting behaviour influences
children’s development from the
moment of birth
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The link between disadvantage and achievement is
evident from an early age
The mother’s level of education has a marked effect on
parental involvement in early learning and child
development
Where mothers provided more stimulation in the home
child development was higher regardless of the 2 factors
above
(Gutman and Feinstein 2007; Feinstein 2003)
Fathers have an important role too
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Children whose fathers are involved in their
learning do better at school and have better
mental health, even after socio economic status
and education have been taken out of the
equation
Fathers’ lack of interest in schooling is a strong
predictor of lack of qualifications
(Flouri and Buchanan, 2001, Hobcraft, 1998)
The influence of the home is
‘enduring, pervasive and direct’
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What parents do at home has a significant
positive effect on children’s achievements even
after all other factors have been taken out of the
equation
Children not only gain skills at home, but also
absorb a positive attitude to and enthusiasm for
learning
(Desforges 2003)
It is possible to engage vulnerable
parents and improve the HLE
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Parental involvement in early learning was linked
to positive changes in parenting, including
spending more time with their children and
demonstrating more emotional warmth, and
positive changes in children’s attachment,
behaviour and development
(Evangelou et al 2008)
Practitioners are important too
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There is significant scope to improve staff
awareness of the importance of engaging with
parents about early home learning.
Confident staff are more likely to readily engage
with parents on a day to day basis by welcoming
them into settings and explaining face to face
what parents can do at home.
(Hunt et al ‘Provider influence on the EHLE’ 2011)
So what skills do practitioners
need?
Have the ability to:
 identify children at risk of learning delay
 listen to and build supportive relationships
with parents – a partnership
 understand why the HLE is so important
 engage and work with a wide range of
parents
• Understand parents’ starting points and
respond appropriately
• Support parents to develop the
confidence, knowledge and skills to help
their children
• Identify any difficulties early and when /
how to involve other services / agencies
• Work effectively in multi-agency teams
Tasks involved in engaging
parents in their children’s learning
Getting to know the community and
families (who are the most vulnerable)
 Outreach to engage families
 Formal and informal consultations
 Having high aspirations for children and
articulating this to parents
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Tailoring support to the needs of individual
families
Building authentic and supportive relationships
with parents
Understanding the wider family environment of
the child
Supporting parents to acquire the knowledge,
confidence and skills to provide the quality of
relationships and learning experiences their
children need
Kelly and Caitlin’s story
‘Giraffe Club’
6 weekly sessions for parents led by a family
learning tutor with a focus on language and
literacy experiences in the home.
Collette, Paul, Brandon
Lee and Lily Rose
Brandon Lee’s home school book
What else do we do?
Home / nursery links
activities
Activity sheets and associated resources for
parents to take and carry out at home with
their child.
Book library
Books for parents to choose with their
child and to take home to share
Toy Library
A weekly run toy library led by 2 practitioners and a parent
volunteer supporting children to choose a toy to take home for the
week with ideas for parents on playing with their child.
‘WOW’ boards
Parents encouraged to write about significant
events / milestones met at home. These are
built into nursery planning and indicated as PI
on the planning sheets.
Home / nursery communication
books
Daily communication books / sheets about the
nursery day. Parents encouraged to write in
these too.
Family photo books
Personal passports
Using the ‘wow’ moments etc in
our planning
Events /activities we involve
parents and carers in
Grandparents day
Bring dad to nursery day
Bring mum to nursery day
Fantasy Day
Charity days
Trips / visits
…….and the impact?
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Confident assertive children who are eager to
learn
Children and families who stay with us from
being a baby until the end of Primary School
Data demonstrates children make outstanding
progress