Digital Engagement for Parents

Bangor Central Nursery School is a stand-alone nursery school in the heart of Bangor. It has 3 classes offering both full-time and part-time classes to 78 children in their preschool year. The school has always had strong parental partnerships, but since September 2019 they have been working to strengthen these partnerships digitally. This is done through using Seesaw to create digital learning journals for each child which is then linked to their family members through the Seesaw Family app.

Pamela Algie is the teaching Principal there and in this clip she tells us how even before the challenges presented by the pandemic she digitally engaged with parents.

Key Learning

• Communicating daily with parents using a digital platform allowed families a window into their child’s day – photos and videos could be used as prompts for a discussion at home about all the learning that had taken place that day.

• Parents could receive important reminders digitally and teachers could check if it had been seen by the parents through.

• Newsletters sent home digitally through Seesaw as pdfs became interactive with clickable links to our Nursery songs, online parent questionnaires and helpful websites.

• Parents were able to access links to outside agencies and parents’ zoom meetings.

Points to Consider

• Staff development is key – building staff skills and confidence in new technology.

• Parental engagement – parents needed to give permission for their child to be included and agree to an acceptable use policy.