Glen Education Caulfield South

Building Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities 

Vibha Jain, Early Childhood Teacher 

Collaborative partnerships with families plays an important role in providing a high-quality program in early years setting. “Children are more likely to be confident and involved learners when their family and community experiences and understandings are recognized and included in the early childhood setting. This assists them to make connections and to make sense of new experiences” (Early Years Learning Framework, 2009, p.33)

Families play a significant role in children’s lives. At Glen Education Caulfield South Kindergarten, we see every family as unique with different values, experiences and priorities. We respond to every family’s situation with respect and understanding. It is important to collaborate with families to ensure all families feel welcome, safe, connected and have a sense of belonging to our kindergarten community. When families and services collaborate and build respectful relationships, children have the opportunity to develop a positive sense of self and experience respectful relationships.

We work collaboratively with families by being responsive, respectful and open to their differences, culture and beliefs. Our strong relationships with families encourage children to try new experiences in our setting while respecting the diversity and differences of the families.

Communication is an important key in building an effective relationships with the families. We share information by using a range of styles and encourage conversations at drop-offs and pick-ups. We share information through a communication board and reflective journals and encourage families to communicate through emails and phone calls. Through this shared collaboration, we work together with the child and family to give support and guidance in our setting.

We encourage our families to engage in our program at any stage. We invite parents to stay and play at the kindergarten so they can see the program and get involved in the child’s learning. This way parents share ideas or things their children are interested in which helps in creating a smooth transition of the child in the kindergarten environment, and also in developing our program plan. The families are welcome to share their skills with us and participate in fundraising events and working bees.

At Glen Education Caulfield South Kindergarten our program is designed to involve our families and communities and their contributions to the service. We support the families to be involved and build collaborative partnerships to achieve the highest quality outcome for children.