Understanding how to support learning and development at home in EYFS

Background and context

After reviewing their baseline data Greenfields Nursery School & Children’s Centre wanted to improve parents understanding of different ways to support their child’s learning at home.

What did they do

To achieve this they include information on home learning in induction meetings with a focus on reading together and using learning opportunities in everyday experiences. Every newsletter contains home learning tips for parents.

They opened their library to families each week to increase parental engagement and this runs every Wednesday morning and afternoon. It is held in the front entrance, so families must pass it on their way into nursery. The children enjoy taking books home and ask their parents to let them choose a book. 62% of families in the over three’s have used the library this year.

They saw an increase attendance at curriculum days with 75 families attending over the year. Attendance increased steadily over the year with 20 in Autumn and 70 in Summer Term. Four workshops were held across the year including one on sharing books with their children. All workshops now include ideas for home learning.

They created a fortnightly home learning board which staff work together to keep a live resource for the parents. Photographs of the children draw the parents in and staff then talk to them about what they can do at home, this has been simple but very effective.

What was the impact? What changed?

They saw an incredible increase in the number of parents responding to the FSPA surveys with 33 in September and 91 at the end of the year.

Greenfields saw increases in their baseline data for home learning for both parents and staff. Baseline parents data increased from 50% to 70% over the year.

In their outstanding OfSTED visit the inspector commented on the usefulness of the home learning board “Parents and carers are highly positive about the school. They value the sense of community developed by leaders and the quality of education their children receive”.

86% of practitioners said that the home learning board has supported parents with home learning and 92% of practitioners said that parents are supported to access the nursery library.

Contact:
Was this page useful? 
Last updated: 01 Nov 2024

Ealing Learning Partnership