You can help your child get ready to start at an education and care service by doing these things:
- Build a good relationship with the educators at the service – this will help them understand your expectations
- Ease your child in with visits and shorter days then slowly add extra days or hours
- Talk to the service to identify ways to help your child settle in, e.g. attending with your child when they first start or providing family photographs to include in the program
- Let staff know what comforts them, e.g. a special toy or blanket, to help them settle down when they’re upset
Building a partnership with your child's education and care service
A good partnership takes time and effort. It’s important for you to build good working partnerships with your service because your child’s environment directly affects how they grow and develop.
Sharing information, ideas, concerns and asking questions about your child while respecting each other’s views and ideas is important.
A quality education and care service will:
- Give you clear information about your child’s time in the service
- Provide you with regular information about your child’s experiences and achievements while at the service
- Ask you about your child’s experiences and interests outside of the service
- Seek advice and ideas from you and your family about your child
- Invite you to help make decisions about your child and any changes in the service e.g. invite you to contribute to the development and review of the service’s behaviour guidance policy or quality improvement plan
- Ask for your feedback about the service e.g. via surveys and showing how they’ve listened and acted on the feedback received
- Invite you to attend social events with other families and staff
- Encourage you to discuss any ideas, issues or concerns with them through casual conversations, meetings or over the phone, in a way that suits you
- Have an ‘open door’ policy, where families are welcome to visit at any time.
There are many ways your service will share information with you:
- newsletters
- noticeboards
- meetings and family information sessions
- family resource libraries
- family handbooks that include up to date information about the service’s policies and procedures
- daily updates to parents when children are dropped off and picked up from care.