Working with Our Families and Building Strong Parent Partnerships

Monika, Nursery Manager, highlights the importance of the parent and nursery relationship.

At Fennies, we believe that connecting parents and early years educators through various events and initiatives creates an engaging, caring, and happy community of learners, with our children being the biggest beneficiaries of this collaboration.

Thanks to this partnership, children can develop the life skills needed for the future, while adults continue to discover various ways to influence the little ones, helping them reach their full potential. This is a learning journey for all of us.

The partnership begins to take shape from the very first visit to the nursery when we meet a new family. It is crucial that we build respect, trust, and honest dialogue from the beginning to understand the unique circumstances, expectations, and needs of each family. At Fennies, we offer friendly and informative tours around the nursery, showcasing our highly skilled and enthusiastic team, state-of-the-art facilities, and an enriched curriculum including languages, cooking, art, and PE sessions run by our specialists.

Our vision for the nursery is one in which parents are actively involved in their child's early years learning journey, forming a close partnership with their child's educators. Parents receive daily life updates about their child's well-being, regular educational observations including photos and next steps, daily posts describing what the children were doing during their time in the nursery, and regular communication from the management informing them about current matters and future initiatives.

This live, open dialogue encourages parents to get involved in the life of our nursery and share their ideas. The Fennies Teddington community is full of talents, and our parents are happy to share these with the children by visiting the nursery and teaching Irish dancing, tennis, yoga, reading books, or discussing their occupations.

All of this helps children gain a better understanding of the world around them, sparks endless discussions, enriches children’s play and social skills, and promotes diversity and inclusion. To bring our families together, we organize regular Fennies community events, extending the invitation to the wider family circle of grandparents, aunts, uncles, or even friends with young children. These events include coffee mornings, parents' evenings, stay-and-play sessions, Christmas parties, ‘Grab and Go’ breakfasts, charity events, and many more.

We aspire to become a hub of support for all local families with young children, contributing to the wider community of Teddington, Twickenham, Richmond Kingston, and more by providing up-to-date knowledge and childcare in the early years field. We carefully listen to the parents’ views and ideas, as we are part of the learning community too. To go from strength to strength, we need to listen, learn, and constantly improve our practice.

The get-together events are exciting for the staff, parents, but also nursery children. We involve our children in decorating the venue and setting up the tables and chairs for their parents. They take ownership of the place, which gives them a great sense of achievement and boosts their self-esteem. At the Coronation Street Party, our children presented their long-term art project – a double-decker coronation bus. They were very proud of the outcome of their 2 months' work, and the event was a great opportunity to showcase their achievement.

Our last Fennies Teddington Community Summer BBQ welcomed around 120 family members and was a great occasion to connect with each other, plan playdates, and meet their children's best friends they had been talking about for months. Our team of early years educators could spend time with the whole family of their key children and create even deeper, more meaningful bonds.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; likewise, the community needs time to grow. The more transparent and receptive the nursery team is, the more trusting and supportive parents become. This partnership is a cornerstone of each child’s successful learning journey.