Parents as Partners in Early Learning

• About Parents as Partners in Early Learning
• Parents as Partners in Early Learning projects

 

About Parents as Partners in Early Learning

A report in Nursery World focused on the Parents as Partners in Early Learning (PPEL) project. This is a government intiative to engage parents in their children's learning. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) highlights the issue in the section Positive Relationships: Effective Practice: Parents as Partners. More than 70 per cent of a child's time is spent outside the early years setting, therefore the EYFS emphasises the importance of parents and community in a child's learning.

The project has been funded by the DfES with a £9million investment for local authorities, who develop initiatives to increase parental involvement. The funding also provides training and support for early years practitioners working with disadvantaged families.

Parents as Partners in Early Learning Projects

In Birmingham, they plan to focus on five wards where the outcomes for communication, language and literacy, and personal, social and education could be improved. Families in temporary accomodation will also be targeted. The 'Tuning into Babies' programme will be extended to reach older children to promote the value of communicating to parents. They also plan to use best practice from some of the city's childminders, in working with parents.

Derbyshire is planning a play project, targeting children age 0-3 based in parent and toddler groups. The aim is to encourage parents in playing with their child at home, to boost confidence and understand more about their child's development.

Training for all children centre staff on the importance of early language is to take place in Nottinghamshire. Universal preventative work and the work of SLTs wil be emphasised. Health visitors, involved in Bookstart and children's centre staff will also work together inviting parents into children's centres for a child support worker to assess needs and a health visitor to check language development.

In Tower Hamlets, boys will be targeted, and parents shown the importance of active and outdoor learning in language and emotional development.

For more information on PPEL visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/features/foundation_stage/parents_partners/

(Extracted from Nursery World, 21.06.07)