0:14 Good morning Harry. Just sign for Harry there.
0:22 We've always had the bus run.
0:25 It gives us a lot of face to face contact to the parents. There might be other members of the family
0:29 around there, we have a little chat, have a yarn, and the kids love it. They jump on
0:34 the bus, they wave goodbye to their parents and stuff like that. So it plays a really
0:38 big part in our communication with parents and the community, and you know it's fun.
0:45 All the kids get to see who lives where and what's happening, and a staff member is always
0:49 standing out the front, saying 'good morning', you know, and bringing the kids in.
0:55 Pretty dress Annabelle.
1:05 The ways that I try to engage parents is to
1:08 have an open classroom. They often participate in the morning routine with us, whether it
1:13 be like putting the stickers in the folders or coming and sitting during the mat time.
1:20 We also like to invite parents to come and be involved maybe to present an activity.
1:25 So we often have visitors coming from community as well.
1:28 [SINGING]
1:49 And I often do sit down and have an informal conversation.
1:52 It's not formal – nothing's ever formal with our mob too. It's always
1:57 sitting down, having that informal chit-chat around questions that they want to ask you.
2:02 But on family days, like I'll put something in there to tell the parents 'you know, if
2:07 you want to help us', because this is what we're doing at the moment. The kids are learning about
2:11 Grandpa Gramp, it's a story about the sea, and they could help us create
2:16 some different sort of sizes of fish, and of course get them to help the children learn
2:22 those names, those words for size. Big, bigger, biggest. You know, because often parents are
2:29 the role models for their children, and if the children see the parents interested in
2:32 something, then it's more likely that the children become interested in it as well.
2:38 Oh isn't that a beautiful story. Do you like that story?
2:46 Talking to parents and having those conversations, and you know you have to have your – your
2:50 relationships with those parents and say, you know, 'next time when you're at home, instead of
2:54 saying to your child come on let's set the table and put the cups out, let's
2:58 use the pink cups today. Or pass mummy the green peas'.
3:06 Sitting down on the beach where – you know, this is our context. You know, we're right
3:10 on the beach, so when you're sitting there, get your kids to draw pictures in the sand
3:14 and say, 'oh this is your name ''ssssss''. Everyone knows that, it's just how are we
3:19 going to use it that's going to help them in a school environment.
3:27 If you don't establish those really good relationships with parents, why would parents send them
3:31 to us? You know, we wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for parents who obviously bring
3:36 them every day and trust us enough to ensure that their child is safe here every day.
3:44 It's because of the relationships that we have with family and community that this place
3:47 is so successful.