What are home visits?
A home visit is a lovely opportunity for a child’s key person and a senior member of the leadership team to visit their key child and their family at the child’s home. It helps to begin forming the relationship between parents, practitioners and children and it starts the process of sharing information and building secure attachments.
When parents choose our setting for their children, we embrace the family as a whole and we include the parents as partners in their children’s education from the very beginning of their nursery experience and this includes the offer of a home visit.
Why do we do home visits?
There are great benefits to home visits, parents and children often feel more relaxed in their home environment and it is really good for the parents to be able to talk to the key person on a one to one basis. Parents can ask questions, have queries or concerns answered within a safe and familiar environment and without the everyday distractions of being at the nursery. Home visits help to develop trust, good communication and a strong relationship between families and practitioners.
Home visits also help practitioners gain knowledge regarding different family cultures, practices and history as we recognise and value that all families are different. On the home visit, staff take a selection of toys with them to the home and whilst one senior staff member talks to the parent the child's key worker shows the child the toy and establishes the relationship with the child.
These home visits support the families’ transition into nursery, when parents (and the children!) are feeling a little nervous about their first day; they have a member of staff that they can rely on and are familiar with.
What is a key person?
Every setting must have a Key Person system in place, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage. During their time at nursery, the child and their family will be allocated a Key Person. This individual will help your child to become familiar with the environment and to feel confident and safe within it. The Key Person will aim to develop a genuine bond with the child and their family and they will offer a settled and close relationship.
The Key Person will spend time observing the child, with a view to understanding their interests and how to develop their learning. This will help practitioners to plan interesting and stimulating activities that will encourage next stages of development. The children will have the opportunity to develop a bond with all staff members and not just their key person. This creates a culture of 'community' learning and is essential if a staff member was absent from work, on a training course, etc. The child will feel at ease having a strong and secure relationship with the other members of staff as well as their key person.
“The propensity to make strong emotional bonds to individuals is a basic component of human nature.” John Bowlby.