Encourage parent engagement at home – Top Tips from Setting Manager Mikki Parkes

We recently visited Auden Place Community Nursery in North London, when writing the recently published Guide to Parent Engagement with Early Years Educator magazine. The guide is packed with information and advice from childcare experts and includes interesting research showing that parent engagement really does lead to better outcomes for children, whatever their circumstance or background.

We interviewed Auden Place’s Manager, Mikki Parkes, who has been instrumental in putting parent involvement at the heart of the Auden Place Nursery. When asked why she believes parent engagement is so important, she said in her experience “when you establish good parent engagement, the children flourish and are proud to have their parents involved. Parents benefit by learning more about their child by being part of their learning journey.” So it really is a win/win/win as the setting is benefitting too.

Auden Place is using the Kinderly software, the award-winning EYFS, app to improve communication between the setting and home. This has encouraged more parents to get involved and has made it easier to interact with the harder to reach parents and carers including mums and dads working full time and those parents where language may be a barrier.

We asked Mikki what simple steps parents can make at home to establish effective engagement with their children. Here are her top tips:

Eat meals together where possible
Put the mobile phone away!
Create a dedicated time with your child once a week
Involve your kids in everyday activities (cooking, washing-up, cleaning etc)
Read, read, read – any format!
Tell your children stories
Get fresh air everyday – even a walk to the shops
Keep introducing new words. E.g:

Please share your parent engagement tips in the comments box below or email us at info@kinderly.co.uk