Principle and statement of intent
The principle behind our Partnership with Parents and Carers Policy is taken from the Policy for Early Years Provision in NI (1994) which states that: “Parents are the first educators of their children and should be involved at all stages in their education and development”.
At Bumbles Day Care, we recognise the importance of keeping in close contact with parents in order to meet the needs of each individual child most effectively. Parents are the most knowledgeable people about their children and are also their first and most influential educators.
Children will be more likely to benefit from their time at Bumbles Day Care when staff and parents work in partnership. We hope that parents will feel free at any time during the year to make any recommendations or ask questions about any aspect of our provision, or to suggest any ways of developing better links between parents and Bumbles Day Care.
Bumbles Day Care has an Open Door Policy whereby parents can request a meeting with the Setting’s Manager. Should a parent wish to speak to a member of staff specifically then it would be advisable to message via our Famly app in advance, so that arrangements can be made to ensure appropriate staff to child ratio is maintained at all times.
In addition to the routine verbal exchange between parents and staff which takes place every morning and every evening, we use the following methods to establish and maintain good communication links with parents:
- FAMLY APP: This is a tablet and cloud-based nursery management system that is managed by Bumbles staff and allows them to record all aspects of each child’s day, including photographs, messages and general activities. This platform holds information about your child, their booking pattern, your family contacts and details (registered collectors), your monthly invoice and payment history and account. We regularly send out updates to the app newsfeed for parents, i.e closure days, fee information, policy changes etc. It is essential that you regularly log in to the Famly app. This can be viewed by parents / guardians from a computer, tablet or smart phone at home or at work. Famly is username and password protected.
- EMAIL: Members of our Senior Team will use email as a quick and effective way to communicate with our parents. Upon registration, parents are requested to supply a personal working email address. Please note that parent’s email details are used internally and only shared with our registering Health & Social Care Trust so they can request confidential feedback from our parents. Email addresses are not distributed to any other third parties.
- WEBSITE: www.bumblesdaycare.com Here you will find a wealth of information including our ethos, our team, fees & payment terms, latest news and access to our Policies & Procedures*. *You will be required to provide an e-mail address to generate your own Parent Log In to access the full website. This is admin controlled and authorised by our site administrator.
- EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRES: These are usually circulated annually, or more often, as required. Bumbles ascertains the views of parents in relation to our practice, procedures and policies. Information arising from the evaluations feeds into our annual review of Policies and Procedures.
- WELCOME DISPLAY: The entrances of each setting will display our registration, insurance information, HSE public Health poster information and any other relevant information.
Apart from having the formal opportunities to air views, outlined above, we hope that parents will feel free at any time during the year to make any recommendations or ask questions about any aspect of our provision, or to suggest any other ways of developing better links between parents and Bumbles. The best way to do this is via our office email: info@bumblesdaycare.com
At Bumbles Day Care we value parental input and appreciate their support. If parents have any special talents, or interesting jobs we encourage them to participate in sharing those talents with our children and staff. For example we have had:
- A parent with hearing impairment, demonstrate the use of sign language.
- A parent, who was blind, visit with their guide dog.
- The parent of a child with a severe nut allergy delivering awareness training of this to staff.
At Bumbles Day Care we celebrate children’s cultures and traditions and encourage parental input in this area is promoted.