Building parental engagement and easing transition

Case study

Close co-operation and shared values help the leaders of Asterdale Primary School and its adjacent children’s centre work with families to ease transition into full time education.

Key learning

Co-location aids the development of close links between different professional communities.
Observing how the school works helps the children’s centre reflect key school processes in its work with 0-3 year olds, for example in its record-keeping, so that it’s easier for the school to access a complete history for each child.
Families’ use of a centre located on the school site helps them see school as a familiar and less threatening place with something to offer them as well as their children. It builds positive attitudes to school and supports parental engagement.
Familiarity with pupils and their families facilitates smoother transition into full-time schooling, with greater consistency and continuity in curriculum development.
Close working relationships between different agencies and professionals on the same site offer improved opportunities for safeguarding.

Background

Asterdale Primary School seized the opportunity offered by co-location with a new children’s centre to tackle the long-standing problem of getting to know families and children well before they enter school.

Asterdale is a small, one form entry primary school and nursery serving a largely static, white, working-class population on the outskirts of Derby. The school’s leafy surroundings belie the fact that this is a pocket of deprivation with 35 per cent of pupils having an entitlement to free school meals.

Key challenges

Getting to the families in most need

The children’s centre needed to access its target customers - the children and families in greatest need.

Separate buildings

Many key services, such as the kitchens, are located in the school and create a misleading impression that the school ‘runs’ the centre.

Contractual differences

The centre’s staff are employed on terms and conditions that are significantly different to those of school staff and there is uncertainty about the long-term financial viability of the centre.

Creating a single professional community

Contractual and other differences between staff in the school, nursery and children’s centre undermine efforts to create a community of equals and impede plans for shared development opportunities.

Solutions

Advance planning

The school, particularly the head, assistant head and chair of governors, invested substantial time and energy into planning for the new development.

Excellent personal relationships

The headteacher and centre manager have an excellent relationship and work together to mediate staff perceptions and foster mutual respect across the co-located site. Together they have been able to develop this work for the benefit of pupils, staff and the local community.

Joint activity

Mutual respect between school and centre staff has been built though joint INSET days in which school staff are encouraged to visit the children’s centre and see how colleagues there approach their work.

Building on each other’s work

The children’s centre targets its core clientele through the school nursery unit’s engagement with those families.

Next steps

Collaborative work is continuing, notably with the appointment of an early years’ foundation co-ordinator. This is a senior position that is split between the primary school and the children’s centre.

Further information

For further information contact Asterdale Primary School by email at admin@asterdale.derby.sch.uk.