Collaborating with Families to Support Childrens Learning Anne - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Collaborating with Families to Support Children’s Learning

Anne Stonehouse

Goals/Purposes/Aims

• What do you hope to achieve

through your relationships with families? (in one sentence!)

• What might be some of the best times for a

parent using your service?

• What might be some of the worst times for

a parent using your service?

Sometimes we act as though children spring into being each morning when they come to us and dematerialize at their departure. We need, instead, to see children ‘whole’ as members of a family and a culture.

(Warren, 1977, p8)

VEYLDF Practice Principle 1: Family-centred practice

Why?

• Children learn in families
• Families are the primary influence on

children’s learning and development – pivotal roles

EYLF Principle 2: Partnerships

Why?

• Helps to achieve Learning Outcomes
• Families are children’s first and most

influential teachers

VEYLDF Practice Principle 1: Family-centred practice

What?

• Use families’ understanding of their

children

• Make decisions together about a child’s

learning and development

• Create a welcoming and inclusive

environment

VEYLDF Practice Principle 1: Family-centred practice

What ? (continued)

• Encourage all families to participate in and

contribute to children’s experiences

• Actively engage families and children in

planning for children’s learning and development

• Provide feedback to families on their child’s

learning and how they can support it

EYLF Principle 2: Partnerships

What?

• Create a welcoming environment
• Respect & encourage collaboration
• Understand each other’s expectations &

attitudes

• Value each other’s knowledge

EYLF Principle 2: Partnerships

What (continued)?

• Value each other’s contributions to and

roles in child’s life

• Trust
• Communicate freely and respectfully
• Share insights and perspectives
• Engage in shared decision making

• The EYLF, VEYLDF and NQS advocate

families, professionals and children teaching and learning from one another – not an expert model where professionals see themselves as experts whose role is to educate parents.

• We must communicate the message that

families are children’s first and most influential teachers in ways that increase families’ confidence, joy and satisfaction in child rearing and that don’t add stress, especially for those families who already face significant pressures and stresses.

2 important points about learning:

• Learning and development are not a
• race. What’s the point of pressuring

children to learn things earlier than they would learn them without the pressure?

• Practising ahead of time is not always

the best way to prepare for the future.

• The large majority of families are doing the

best they can in a world that is not always supportive.

• There are many ways that families can

nurture children’s love of learning.

Some characteristics of family- professional partnerships

• Respect
• Shared goals: the child’s wellbeing
• Complementary contributions
• Different perspectives

• What are some of the ways you

show families that you respect them?

• A parent’s job is to be the

President of their child’s fan club.

Why do partnerships matter?

• Child’s identity
• Child’s belonging to family
• Foundation for learning: our relationship

with the child

• Source of our knowledge about the child
• Continuity and consistency
• Families’ belonging to communities

• What are the obstacles to

partnerships with families? What gets in the way?

Some obstacles

• Lack of time
• Lack of confidence, skills, commitment
• Biases and stereotypes
• Cultural and language issues
• Low expectations – ‘us & them’ attitude –

general pre-disposition to be critical

More obstacles

• Confusion with involvement and

participation

• License to educate
• Tendency to blame the other
• Child saving
• Overlooking that parents are more than

parents

• If you were going to stay for a long time

with someone you didn’t know in a place you weren’t familiar with, what would make you feel welcomed?

Evidence of welcome – ‘Let me count the ways’

• What are the signs of welcome for all

families in your service – in the physical environment and in your practice?

• What more can you do and/or what can you

do differently?

Practices that support partnerships

• Set the stage from the first encounter
• Multiple ways of communicating
• Go beyond ‘show and tell’ to talk about

why you do what you do

• Talk about what the child is learning and

has learned, not just what they are doing

More practices

• Share all the good news you can
• Adopt a ‘why not?’ rather than a ‘no way’

attitude

• Ask – don’t presume to know
• Be empathetic
• Individualise expectations

• One of the most valuable things you can do

for a child is to strengthen a sense of belonging to family, culture and community.

• One of the most destructive is to diminish

that sense of belonging.

• Family-professional partnerships,

like most relationships, are built through a variety of seemingly insignificant, sometimes unconscious, interactions and interchanges over time.

• To look is one thing. To see what you

look at is another. To understand what you see is a third. To learn from what you understand is still something else. But to act on what you learn is all that really matters.

(Talmud)

• What is one step you can take

tomorrow to strengthen your partnerships and collaboration with families and support children’s and families’ sense

• f belonging to each other?