Parents

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A section for parents

The intention of this section is to help you

  • Look for a preschool/school
  • To help you explore your vision and expectations
  • In how to know what you might be looking for
  • In what to expect
  • To find ways to support the educators to develop their work with your children

And to help educators become more determined, informed and connected: your reflections and questions can help enormously all those centres and educators who are working hard to create new and different learning spaces for children, in ways that they perhaps haven’t been schooled themselves – remember that it is difficult for them, and they are being brave, and thinking hard about what to do!”

Below are some questions which we are currently using as a basis of discussions to help us develop this section. If you would like to join in this discussion, please get in touch (or if you would like to simply write in with your thoughts, please do, It will be a great help.

For parents who are attending a preschool in the network

  1. We work from the principle that all children are born competent, creative, curious, sociable: What do you feel is important for childhood and what children should experience in settings(early childhood centres/schools?)
  2. Can you find three words which characterise the most important aspects of your experience; your child/ren’s experience; about the characteristics of the centre and the educators? (Three words for each – but add more if you want!)
  3. What are you seeing and learning about your child through the possibilities that this approach to education is providing?
  4. Are your own expectations/ your parenting developing differently than before?
  5. What do you want to tell other parents about the benefits of working in this way?

For any parent (e.g. if you are seeking educational places for your children)

  1. What do you want / for you as parents / for your child/ren?
  2. We work from the principle that all children are born competent, creative, curious, sociable: What do you feel is important for childhood and what children should experience in settings(early childhood centres/schools?)
  3. What kind of help do you want in looking for a ‘good preschool’ that has our values?
  4. Can you recall seeing elements of these qualities anywhere, or had them in your own experience as a child? Please tell about them.
  5. What worries you about the current offering for our children in schools and centres?

Ongoing Dialogues ...

Since making this invitation, we are now in active dialogue with parents' campaign group Let Kids Be Kids, and members of  the More Than a Score coalition.

We have also researched past studies such as  'The School I'd Like', and hope to publish extracts of some.

We now have an ongoing 'Parents in Dialogue' group which is also collecting and responding  to our invitation. They are focussed on how to make the strongest public case for 'education fit for children.'