Sharing information about children’s learning in efficient and effective ways

Making learning visible and creating genuine partnerships

Sharing information with families is an important part of the education and care quality and learning frameworks. Families are the primary influence in their children’s lives; they often have strong beliefs and values regarding the education and care of their children. If the focus shifts from taking photos and creating aesthetically pleasing visuals for families and more time is spent articulating and making the learning visible, this not only provides more meaningful information about the individual chid, it also in turn creates higher quality practice in the implementation of the assessment and learning cycle.

Making the information sharing effective for both families and for educators in meeting the expectations National Quality Standard and provide a high-quality learning program for children.

What are the requirements for sharing information with families?

Under the Education and Care National Law and Regulations, refers to requirements for having a written program that supports learning and development in relation to the five learning outcomes and their key components. Families have access to information about:

• the content and operation of the program as far as it relates to their child
• their child’s participation in the program.

There is however no specific format or amount of documentation required per child under the regulations. The amount of documentation should be determined by the time the child is being educated and cared for by the service. The focus should be on what information is shared with families and how it makes children’s learning and progress visible, not how much.

What meaningful information looks like

• Sharing information with families that is about the learning and not the activity that the child is engaged in. For example, when sharing a photo, the activity is usually obvious to families, but the learning is not.
• Educators can use their professional confidence to articulate the learning that is happening for children and help families understand it. For example, one or 2 photos with meaningful information tells a family so much more about their child than 10 photos with generic information about the whole group. Think quality vs quantity.
• When recording learning over time to record children’s progress, think of this as a ‘point in time’ analysis of the learning, not just a one off. Consider how that will be reflected in the next learning summary shared with the family.
• Recognise the family as the child’s first teacher and work with them to support consistent learning approaches for their child. Remember information should be presented from the educator’s point of view, not as fact. For example, gather information from families about their child’s progress towards the five learning outcomes by finding out what they know about the outcomes as information with them.

Tips for building strong relationships and crafting meaningful communication with families about their child’s children’s learning

• Tell families about your practices—why you do things the way you do, changes you are considering or have made—and their impact on children’s learning.
• Consider the value of projects that extend over days or weeks. Works in progress can provide tangible evidence of children’s learning.
• Share information about the EYLF and the NQS and make records of children’s learning available. Recognise and respect that there will be varying levels of interest in this information.
• Think carefully about the distinction between records you might make for yourself and your colleagues and those that have meaning and are useful for families.
• Use photos to illustrate what children do but recognise their limitations as a means of communicating about learning—a picture on its own isn’t worth a thousand words; words are a necessary addition. (Communicating with families about children’s learning: NQS PLP No: 68)

Information sharing techniques

Different approaches work for different families and so it is key that educators draw on a range of techiques that can be used to share two-way information about children’s learning with families. Including:

• annotated photos that clearly explain the learning happening in the photo
• audio recordings of children talking about their learning
• written summaries about children’s progress toward the learning outcomes
• wall displays that include samples of children’s work, with educators’ voice demonstrating the learning
• conversations between educators and families about what children know, can do and understand both at home and at the service
• blog or app posts that show how children’s interests, strengths and skills are supporting their learning.

Support to improve

If this blog has inspired you to take a fresh look at the way you share information with families check out our Information for families course. If you would like more information about what sort of documentation is required take a look at our Educational program and practice guidance course.