Parents of children attending Highbury Monkey Puzzle Islington this week went back to school, in a specially organised participative curriculum evening at their children’s nursery.

Anthony Kent, Operations Manager & qualified Early Years Teacher, explained.

“The objective of our EYFS Curriculum Evenings is to offer our parents and families the opportunity to visit the nursery and embark on a voyage of discovery into the life of their children at nursery.

We invited them to join us on an interactive tour of the environment, where they were encouraged to get their hands dirty and try a range of activities and ideas that we share with the children to help them learn through play.

Whilst they enjoy the fun and informative activities around each classroom, our professional team of teachers and practitioners share ideas about how to extend learning, develop speech and language and link ‘easy to use’ ideas with the key areas of the curriculum.

The event is designed to develop parent partnerships, sharing our teacher’s expertise to educate them about the way we teach and assess children’s progress in early years. It also serves to highlight the importance of home learning to further enhance their child’s education, providing some key knowledge of the EYFS curriculum. We share with them some strategies used to engage with each unique child’s interests and learning needs and provided some home learning packs to further bridge the gap between home and nursery life.”

In the Discoverers room parents tried their hands at messy play, with shaving foam, glitter jelly, sand pits and water trays, whilst our baby room team explained how these types of sensory play help to develop young babies senses and dexterity. The highlight was singing from four fathers, a joint rendition of ‘three little ducks’ around the water tray.

The Explorers room had paint printing, counting games and shape constructions, parents were encouraged to discuss behaviour management strategies for 2 year olds, along with the importance of daily routines and visual resources to develop communication. The reading area showcased a range of books both traditional favourites like the Gruffalo, to follow their recent theatre trip; and books to support transitions such as new babies, room moves and kind hands.

Our Inventors room demonstrated the impact of ICT in early years with our ‘augmented reality’ story books displayed on our SMARTboard. We also shared ideas to develop mathematics and literacy, with rhyming games and easy phonics games.

The Pre-School room was transformed to a working science lab with this months topic, where we explained how to explore science using household items with young children at home.

Joy Wood, Nursery Manager summarised the experience, “ This was a wonderful experience for our parents, and with polite inhibitions swept away, our team really got to know their parents so much better. Most importantly though, our parents have a far greater understanding of our educational activities, and how we can best work together, for the benefit of our children. We also had great fun, with lots of laughter and learning.”

Highbury Monkey Puzzle Islington opened in December 2013 and achieved an Outstanding in all areas in their first Ofsted inspection in June 2014.