Squaring the triangle
In the blink of an eye, ‘how was nursery’ becomes ‘what did you do at school today?’ How can a child - whether 3 or 8 - answer when their long day is full of activities, play, thoughts, interactions and emotions? And when their setting is full of separate processes and vocabulary particular to that environment?
At Playhood we don’t think children should have to decode these separate worlds. Playhood was founded to break down walls between parenting, educating and working, to bring together, rather than force apart, key parts of our lives and identity. Experiences of the pandemic saw this experiment implemented at scale as families adapted to working and schooling from home. And now we’d like to build on our reflections to support a new model for parent-teacher partnership.
Childcare and education settings can struggle to build close bonds with parents. Over reliance on apps for feedback and observations, exacerbated by Covid restrictions, have further eroded the human connection in the relationship. Educators miss the bigger picture of home and family, personality and experiences, the whole child.
The outcome of Playhood’s unique access to our member parents via the workspace (and reciprocally, to teachers in our homes) has been a leap in our children’s sense of security. A more seamless flow between home and nursery, underpinned by a strong sense of community, maximises the potential to nurture budding interests, attend to issues of concern and support our children to self-regulate through shared strategies - our number one goal.
Learning together
Playhood Founder, Karen Partridge observes, “We’ve spent the last two years experimenting with bespoke experiences designed for each individual child, whilst working shoulder to shoulder with their parents. It’s taken patience, vulnerability and trust, on all sides”.
A few key observations on how this works:
Joint reflection and preparation
Collaborative online monthly planning, including parents and teachers, helps to pool and build on each other's ideas. There are always offers of materials, contacts, time and expertise, dependent on children’s current interests, the season or cultural topics arising. Decisions are discussed openly, with children, staff and parents as stakeholders in all planning.
Feedback loop
Teachers are kept up-to-speed on home events and can integrate this into conversations that scaffold learning. Parents have visibility on the day’s highlights and so can build on a new skill or interest that evening. The aperture for the working relationship is set much wider than a traditional setting - fertility, birth stories, grandparents’ roles, neighbours, family changes and holidays. This bigger picture equips our practitioners with a broader understanding and this in turn breeds empathy.
Quality time together
We eat the same lunch, ensuring we don’t double-up on rice at dinner, whilst discussing updates and ideas. Drop-off and pick-up are not rushed, allowing time for discussion. Our families and neighbours visit the nursery weekly and group activities, meet-ups and even shared holidays are regularly initiated.
This responsiveness is, of course, enabled by small numbers and unusual proximity. We appreciate Playhood is niche, but are convinced there are transferable learnings from our community, which is underpinned by a blend of habits, co-design and transparency. We believe the benefits of parents and teachers integrating their observations and skills can unlock enrichment far beyond the child’s learning. Our staff report feeling more able to implement their Montessori training, our processes enable a more prepared environment and practitioner.
Sharing best practice
So, we have started to map the dynamics of a new kind of partnership between Early Years Educators and parents based on what’s developed and been engineered over our first two years. We believe the moment for change is now, as we emerge from the pandemic with clarity on our family and professional priorities and greater acknowledgment of the crucial value ‘key workers’ play in all our lives. Building bonds between parents and teachers unlocks a stronger community between all member families. It normalises sharing, openness and reciprocity. The friendships amongst the children are reinforced in a larger, authentic, social network. And maybe parent partnership, more than a lofty ambition to ultimately advance a child’s achievement, actually boils down to the simple joy of having more fun together.
If you’re interested in joining us in this work or know someone who might be, we’d love to hear from you.
Karen Partridge, Playhood founder
Georgia Norton, Researcher & Strategist, Playhood member
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