Making links with home -

Welcoming parents and carers into your setting


Close links between a child’s home and your setting are essential for a smooth transition from the home environment, with familiar people, surroundings and routines, to the initially unfamiliar environment of your setting. Information shared about the child by parents or carers can prove to be vital to providing the right support for them in school.

Here are some ideas for how you can involve parents and carers in your children's learning through inviting them into your setting.


Parent creating a bridge with their body for their child to crawl under


Invite parents and carers to your setting to observe and interact with children and with you

You could create ‘15-minute expert times’ where parents and carers share an interesting or useful skill.

Invite parents and carers as ‘guest readers’ to share their favourite stories with your children.

Consider events for parents where they can better understand the routines and learning that take place in your setting. Invite them into the setting to observe, or to work with their own child and other children, with the same home language.                                              


Involve parents and carers in a variety of special events and cultural events

This a great opportunity for parents and carers to meet one another, to see what their child does in your setting and for you to build a good rapport. You could, for example, celebrate ‘Earth Day’ by asking parents and carers to help children build a garden area, or host a cultural festival.

Child and adult having fun together


Celebrate achievements

Celebrate children’s achievements through displays in your setting. Also create collections of each child’s experiences and achievements. This may be done through an on-line system, or in portfolios or scrap books. Parents and carers can then see the achievements online or by looking at the paper records when they visit your setting. You can also ask parents and carers to contribute online or to the portfolios or scrap books by sharing their child’s achievements. This could be a verbal, written or visual contribution.

Whichever system you use, also communicate significant achievements to parents and carers on the same day, verbally, when they collect their child at the end of the day. For example: ‘Rudra caught a small ball for the first time today.’