Reply To: Share your practices

At our centre we have a variety of transition times that provide opportunities for developing relationships with families, while covid has limited some of our gatherings like Christmas/ Chinese New Year so that we can’t have whole centre gatherings we can still have the smaller ones.

When a family is settling they come for visits depending on their needs and availability, this could be 1 hour a day for 2 weeks but could be more or less. This is an ideal time for the teachers in the baby room to bond with the family and also any other teachers who are helping in the baby room. When the tamaiti is going to transition to the toddler area the family can spend time in the toddler area and also have a welcome morning tea which is a time to get to know each other. When the tamaiti transitions to the new house there is a farewell afternoon tea and then a welcome hui at the whare nui. Each of these provide times without the time pressure that can exist at pick up drop off times.

Pick up and drop off times are also an important time to show care and interest with families, every teacher prioritises discussions with the families at this time. We also use storypark which is a great way to share learning with parents.

Our planning and documentation for every tamaiti is based on parents aspirations which are gathered (through face to face or written information) once a term. These aspirations are linked to Te Whariki learning outcomes.

We have always valued the knowledge and expertise that whanau bring about their tamaiti, customs and culture and have enjoyed many parents sharing their skills and knowledge at our centre.

We have kaiako who speak a variety of languages, this helps with connecting with families as well.

My personal challenge is that I usually work 9-3pm which means I don’t get to see the parents very often. I have tried to use storypark to help build relationships with the parents but often use the support of other kaiako to have the face to face conversations with the families for me.