Aim of policy:
For staff to understand the importance of parent feedback, and the processes by which feedback is undertaken at Rainbow
Policy Statement:
Parents leave their children at Rainbow for up to 10 hours a day. This is the majority of the children’s waking time each week. The rely us on us to care for their children, and support them to learn, develop and grow. They need an enormous amount of trust to this. One way we can build trusting relationships with parents is to provide feedback and details about how children spend their day. This helps parents to understand what happens after they drop their child off at the gates, and is a way of helping them to be involved.
Feedback processes:
At Rainbow there are 4 feedback mechanisms used to communicate with parents.
1. End of day feedback
2. Extended personal feedback
3. Photos of the day
4. Feedback on request
In addition to this, parents can request a parent consultation when they wish to discuss an issue, or attend the planned parent meetings twice per year, which will provide detailed feedback on their child. See the Parent Consultation policy for more details.
End of day feedback
The format and amount of feedback provided at the end of the day is different according to the age group of the children. The most detailed feedback is provided to the younger children, and daily feedback becomes less detailed as the groups get older, and by Lions and Elephants end of day feedback is by ‘exception’.
Frogs and Pandas
Each day; at pick up time, each child is taken out individually by a team member, and handed over to the parents. During the handover, the parents should be told about basic care updates (how much the child slept, what they ate, toileting information), and some insight into what the child did during the day, emphasising any activity or experience that the child particularly enjoyed. Any ‘critical’ information should also be feedback – this includes any accidents or injuries, bites or having bitten and anything else unusual. Staff need to have the ‘clipboard’ with the recorded information with them during feedback.
During the day, staff can write onto the register any ‘extra’ information they wish to feedback to parents, so it is all gathered in one place at the end of the day.
Staff should also check milk, nappy and spare clothing supplies and feed back to parents if they are required to bring in more for the following day.
Crocodiles
General feedback can be provided to groups of parents as they wait outside the Zebra gates or classroom door. General feedback can include details of what the children were doing that day, the range of activities on offer, the epic of circle time, the stories that were read and shared during the day, It is likely that this feedback will be repeated several times as different groups of parents gather.
On handover of individual children to their parents, care information (sleep) is provided and at least one personal comment about the child’s day, which gives the parent some personal insight.
Armadillos, Leopards and Giraffes
Personal feedback is not usually provided, and feedback is by exception. Where possible staff should try to talk to parents about the day’s activities and experiences and give insight to what the children did.
The clipboard containing the registered is displayed for the parents to view independently, and they can check children’s sleep times themselves. Nothing confidential should be recorded on the sheets as the information can be read by all parents.
Where there is something personal or specific to feedback to the parents an asterisk should be placed beside their name. [*]. This mark indicates to parents that there is personal feedback to provide, and they should see a staff member.
Personalised and confidential feedback, usually of a critical nature (injuries, accidents, bites, fights) should be recorded in the confidential daily diary as they happen during the day, and an asterisks placed alongside the child’s name in the register.
The staff member letting the children out at the end of the day should have access to the confidential book, and ensure that they understand the feedback. This should be given to the parents, and a cross put through the asterisks to indicate that the parents have been given the appropriate feedback.
After all the children have left, the team leader, deputy or designated key worker should review the register to ensure that all the asterisks have been crossed through. Any which have not will need to be contacted via a phonemail or voice note on WhatsApp before the staff member finishes their shift. This is critical and must take place
Late club attendees
The late club staff do not provide feedback to parents about their day. The only feedback the late club staff give is in relation to anything that took place during the late club hour.
All late club children’s parents must be sent a ‘feedback’ voice note from a team member of their classroom. This can either be their key worker, or a designated feedback person, as directed by the team leader in each class.
Any children registered for late club (including children who are booked during the day, and join late club at the last minute) should have personalised feedback sent via a voice-note WhatsApp message to one of their parents.
The voice note should be sent after 3:45pm and before 5pm from the phone in the classroom, and should include the following information:
- Sleep times
- Toileting/Accidents
- Overview of the day (art activities, experiences, circle time etc)
- Food and eating information
- A personal antidote from the child’s day
- Any other relevant information
Extended Personal Feedback
This is provided by the key worker, team leader or deputy team leader to each child’s parents on a weekly basis. The team leader will direct the staff on the operational arrangements for this within their classroom.
Extended feedback is usually provided via a voice note to one or both of the parents’ WhatsApp accounts. However, this may also take the form of a phonemail where relevant.
The extended feedback should provide an insight to how the child’s week has been since you last sent extended feedback, and should comment on all or some of the following points:
- Which activities and experiences the child has taken part in over the last week
- What the child has particularly enjoyed
- How the child’s learning or interests could be extended or developed at home
- Update on relevant development pints (using the EYFS as a guide)
- Relationships with other children, who the child has been playing with, any difficulties they have faced
- Comment on their food and snack intake, likes and dislikes
- Comment on children’s sleep
- One or two ‘stories’ about fun or interesting things that the child said or did over the last week whilst at gan
- Any other relevant information specific to that child
The voice note feedback will generally last 1 – 2 minutes in length. Team leaders are required to listen back to messages sent by staff periodically, and provide feedback to staff on their voice notes. All voice notes should be sent from the gan classroom phone during working hours.
START your feedback with a WARM WELCOME, and introduce yourself (even if you have done this many times before). THEN… start with an OVERVIEW of the last week; saying “We had a great (busy, interesting, exciting or another ‘positive’ word) week.. over the last week we have… (then talk about some of the activities on offer, and some of the things the child has been doing)… THEN move into the bullet pointed list above, and REMEMBER to cover EVERYTHING!
Photos
Photos of the children’s day provide an important and visual insight for the parents on what the children have been doing. Staff should try hard to take lots of pictures of the following things:
- Children playing independently, with other children and with staff
- Children taking part in specific activities or planned experiences
- Children taking part in routine tasks within the day such as hand washing, eating, sleeping
- Individuals and groups of children
- Staff should feature with the children in at least 50% of the photos taken
- For further guidance on taking photos, click here for the Rainbow photo policy
Feedback on request
Parents may request feedback or to discuss a specific issue on the phone. We ask parents to send a WhatsApp message to the classroom phone to request a call back. All messages should be acknowledged within one hour of being received, and an anticipated call back time communicated. The key worker should then call back the parent at the planned time, or at the nearest convenient time (this is often when children are sleeping), and talk to the parent. During the conversation the key worker should try to resolve the parents’ query or listen to their comments and address the specific points, but the opportunity should also be taken to provide wider feedback about what the child has been doing at gan, and provide as much insight as possible into their gan day.
Further reading
Click below to read some guidance on going feedback: