At Browick Road, the partnership between home and school is fundamental to everything we do. You are your child’s first teacher – we really value your knowledge of your child’s strengths and interests, and your support is vital if your child is to thrive with us.

What can you do to help at home?

There are so many ways in which you can help your child at home, and they don’t need to involve ‘formal’ learning.

Talking to your child, and listening to what they say in return, are two of the most important things you can do. Chat about anything you like! Name the fruits and vegetables as you go around the supermarket, talk about what you’re making for dinner, make up stories with toys as you play or talk about your day at bedtime. Try to get rid of dummies, or at the very least save them for sleep – children can’t learn to speak clearly if they are holding a dummy between their teeth. Say nursery rhymes and sing songs together – and have fun!

The importance of reading with your child cannot be overstated. Listening to stories stimulates the development of imagination and vocabulary, and helps children to understand and make sense of the world around them. Make reading a story a part of your bedtime routine each day, if it isn’t already, and try to make time for stories at other times in the day if you can too. Children’s experiences of reading during the early years shape their attitude towards it in the future. Fostering and encouraging a lifelong love of books is one of the most valuable gifts you can give a child. Best of all, access to thousands of amazing children’s books is completely free if you join the library. When your child is in Reception, they will bring home reading books.

Have fun with numbers – count grapes as you share them out onto plates, count the stairs as you go up or down them, spot numbers on front doors and lamp posts when you are out and about. Number rhymes and songs are a fun way to learn how numbers work. If you’re struggling to remember any, have a look here for some inspiration:

bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-counting-songs/zn67kmn

Encourage independence. It is tempting, if only for the sake of speed, to continue to do things for our children, even when we know they are capable of doing them for themselves! However, a growing sense of independence is vital for a child’s healthy development, both physical and emotional. Let them have a go at pouring their own drink from a small jug, even if it means mopping up a spillage! Ask them to put on their wellies, even if you then have to help them get them off and put them back on the right way round. Work up to putting coats on by themselves, starting with getting arms into sleeves, and eventually learning to do their own zip – ask your child to show you the ‘magic trick’ we teach them here!

Now for a word on toilet training. We are here to help! Once you feel your child is aware of the need to use the toilet, and you’ve made a start on toilet training at home, please feel free to ask us to keep going with it whilst your child is with us. Our toilets are tiny, but if your child would rather use their own potty to begin with, please do bring it in. Don’t be afraid to send your child in wearing pants – we are used to dealing with accidents, and would far rather do that than risk setting back your efforts by having your child back in pull-ups every time they come in.

Tapestry

Our main method of communication with you is Tapestry, our online learning journal. We will ask you to sign a permission form for our use of Tapestry during your initial visit. It is an extremely secure platform – you sign in with your email address and password, and only people you have chosen to give your password to are able to view your child’s observations. 

You will see a ’round up’ of your child’s activities at the end of each week on Tapestry, as well as ‘Wow!’ moments, when your child has done something for the first time, or has triumphed over something they have previously found difficult, for example. During their time in Nursery, you will also see their ‘Focus Child’ observation sheet on Tapestry in the autumn and spring terms.

Please do remember to read and comment on these observations. You are our partners in your child’s education and your input is extremely valuable to us. We will try to give you ideas for their ‘next steps’ wherever we can and will work in partnership with you to help your child achieve them.

You are also able to post photos and observations to your child’s Tapestry account to share with us – we love to see pictures of things the children enjoy doing outside of school or nursery, and often use them to inform our planning.  Looking at photos of themselves and their families having fun is also a lovely way to help children to settle if they are ever feeling anxious, so we make the children’s learning journals available to them whilst they are here.