One of the key themes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) recognises that parents are children’s first and most enduring educators and that when parents and practitioners work together in early years settings, the results have a positive impact on children’s development and learning. We therefore need the support of parents now more than ever.

Examples of involving parents as partners as Leahurst Road Pre-school:

• Volunteering on the parent rota every term
• Getting involved with sponsored bus collect and other activities that come home
• Helping on trips out
• Visits from parents with interesting skills or jobs e.g. a visit from a dad who is a GP or Indian hand painting
• Supporting and helping out at Pre-school events such as the Easter Egg Hunt and Summer Fayre
• Exchanging knowledge about their children’s needs, activities, interests and progress with the staff e.g. ‘all about me’ information
• Joining the Committee and attending the AGM and parents evening

However, significant numbers of parents do not participate in directly supporting Leahurst Road Pre-school for a numbers of reasons e.g. lack of time or having smaller children at home.

We are looking at initiatives to encourage more parents/carers to get involved and would welcome your ideas too. Children really enjoy having parents or carers in Pre-School and the overall benefits of an extra pair of hands in the session can be enormous. You might have specific skills, special knowledge or interests, such as music or crafts, which you could share with the children.

Regular or infrequent, large or small, all offers of help are much appreciated.