Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre - science boxes
Outcomes
'Excellent opportunity for staff and parents… the commitment from both was overwhelming. Hopefully the positive
experience for parents will carry on into primary school … I enjoyed working with the parents in a different way.' Lynn McCafferty, Head of Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre
Parents get involved in children's learning
Although parents turned up at the first meeting, others joined in as time went on. Parents felt really involved in their child's learning, and that their views and opinions were respected and taken on board.
One parent said: 'I feel more confident in contributing to my child's learning and I've done things in the past with my child's homework, etc., but never been involved to such an extent as I have been with this project.'
Key benefits
Lynn says: 'Four months on, our project is established and working very well with positive feedback from the children and parents. It is a joy to see the excitement on the faces of the children when it is their turn to take home a box. The icing on the cake is being able to improve our reporting to parents. A system is set up in our entrance hall with a loop linked to the computer to provide opportunities for all parents, visitors, etc., to see the children at work. As a method of reporting to parents it provides a user-friendly, joyous way of sharing in their child's learning experiences.'
Video - staff-parent partnership
'We wanted to have a complete partnership where it was parents and it was staff together. It was people working together. We were looking at children's learning, looking at how children learn in the home and in nursery...'
| Staff-parent partnership | |
|---|---|
| Description | In this clip we hear from a parent who was initially apprehensive about the project. It also shows the Head of Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre, Lynn McCafferty, talking about the level of parental involvement at the Centre and the way in which the science project has been used to build on and extend partnership with parents. |
| Duration | 1 minute 50 seconds |
| Windows version |  Windows Media file: Staff-parent partnership |
| Mac version |  QuickTime file: Staff-parent partnership (modem) |
| Mac version | QuickTime file: Staff-parent partnership (ISDN) |
| Transcript | Transcript of video: Staff-parent partnership |
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