Parents and Professionals Together
At Rosemary Lane Nursery School we value that families are the most important influence in their child’s early years. When parents and practitioners work together in early years settings the results have a positive impact on children’s development and learning. Mams, dads, grandparents and carers are all welcome into nursery and your child will benefit from this involvement.
We work with parents and other professionals within the community to support children’s development, helping them to value all people and understand their place within their community. This is unique to each family, and reflects individual communities and cultures. Rosemary Lane Nursery School is part of the community, even though not all children live in the surrounding neighbourhood. We Invite members of the local community into the setting to share their expertise and experiences, this encourages children to develop their relationship and care of their community.
We believe our parent/carers and grandparents have a wealth of experience and skills, which when shared, enable Rosemary Lane Nursery to go from strength to strength. We have been fortunate to have parents/carers and grandparents come into nursery to share their time and their skills such as, sharing their love of gardening by planting with our children.
We frequently invite professionals into nursery to support the children’s learning. The dentist and dental nurse, paramedic, hospital nurse all help to raise the children’s awareness of health and hygiene issues through fun, exciting hands on experiences with both actual equipment, props and puppets.
Parents support positive role models by sharing their occupation, for instance we had a male Paramedic nurse helping with the Rosemary Lane Nursery hospital.
The emergency services also support children’s learning through their visits. The fire service and police visit to raise awareness of safety – how to stay safe, how the services help when needed and the equipment they need.
We have had demonstrations and hands on experience from one of our parents for Chinese New Year. She kindly came into nursery to work with our children to make dumplings. We always value help with nursery projects such as Forest Schools and football skills, not to mention help with our wonderful garden. These are just a few examples of how you could help. It is a lovely opportunity to share special times with your children. If you are able to help in nursery please see your child’s key person to arrange a suitable time for you to join in and be prepared to have lots of fun.
Visits
Wherever possible we encourage families to become involved with visits and walks. We use the extended environment to support learning by walking in the local community with children and parents in all seasons.
We visit a local farm with our parents to develop children’s understanding of animals and how to care for them.
We visit a theatre to give children the experience of theatre productions, acting, scenery and travelling as part of a group away from nursery.
We hold an annual visit to South Shields where children, staff, parents and families enjoy the sand, sea and run many family races on the beach.
Nature Walks
Walks in the local area are used to raise children’s awareness of “seasonal changes” and environmental issues. Children collect interesting objects along the way which they enjoy sharing with their friends in their key group. On return to nursery these are used for lots of different activities such as pattern making, creativity and even blackberry jam making!
Shops/Library/ Local Businesses
We aim to raise children’s awareness of local businesses and their purpose in the community. We visit the local shops, library, garden centre and supermarket. First hand experiences with travel, handling money, technology, writing and posting letters are all very important, valuable learning experiences.
Allotments
We have lots of families and staff with allotments in the area. We often visit family allotments where the children help to feed chickens, pick vegetables, see how vegetables grow and collect eggs. Grandparents enjoy sharing their skills and experiences with the children.
Forest Schools
Our very special Forest Schools Project supports our use of the local environment for learning. Please view our Forest School Project slideshow. We have recently extended this to create a Forest School environment within our nursery grounds.
Children visit Seaham beach for our Beach Schools Project which raises awareness of a different kind of learning environment. Please view our Beach School Project adventure.
