Daily and Weekly Communication
Each classroom will have individual ways to promote daily communication with families. This includes sharing information about feedings, rest times, toileting, and how your child engaged during their day. In general, teachers also benefit from hearing about information that could affect a child’s day within the classroom – for example, if the child hasn’t slept well, if there is a change in pick up time, if a family member is away on business, etc.
Weekly curriculum reflections are emailed to families as well as monthly in-depth newsletters. Teachers may also share summaries of the day’s events, sometimes involving the children in summarizing the day. These communications share your child’s engagement, projects they are working on, and other learning experiences. Infant and toddler classes may use a Daily Note app or a white board in the class to share daily summaries of caregiving details and information about the child’s day, or will share this information in another way at the end of each day.
Finally, when children or families do not speak English, the school will find ways to communicate with the family and work to support the child’s English language learning.
Family Teacher Conferences and Child Portfolios
Families are invited to set up a conference with a classroom teacher or the Director at any time regarding the Center or their child’s development. In addition, the Center designates time during both the fall and spring semesters for conferences. Meetings are offered in November and April. We offer conferences to families of infants or of children with disabilities four times per year. We encourage families to sign up during these times. If at any time a parent, teacher or Director believes it is necessary, an additional conference will be held. We are best able to support your child and family when we are all working together.
Observing the children, and reflecting on those observations, is an important way for our teachers to learn more about what children are interested in, what skills they may be developing, areas where we could provide more opportunities and support, and paths that could be explored through curriculum. We gather evidence of these observations, photographs, and pieces of children’s work in child portfolios. Teachers use portfolios to track the learning, growth, and progress of each individual child and as a tool to drive their curriculum. These portfolios are stored openly in the classroom and can be reviewed and explored by families at any time. We encourage families to have a look at the portfolios, especially before conferences in preparation for the meeting. When a child leaves our program or moves to their next classroom the portfolios are sent home.
Parent Questions, Concerns and Comments
Our hope is that the Center will flourish in an atmosphere of open communication and that all who are involved will bring a spirit of trust in our ability to be a strong and generous community. Along with the pieces we put in place for regular communication from the staff, we want families to feel they can communicate with us easily when they have concerns about their children, their child’s participation in the program, or other matters concerning the center. We are happy to arrange a time with teachers and/or directors to discuss any center matters. Our door is always open!
Megamenu Social