Introducing the Benefits of Iconnect and Parentzone

Introducing the benefits of iConnect and ParentZone iConnect is a new software that we are introducing in our nursery. You will soon see your key workers using tablets in the rooms to take observations of your children, and log their activities throughout the day.

The behind the scenes paperwork can take up an awful lot of practitioners time when what they really want to be doing is playing and engaging with your children to help them develop. iConnect lets them log information about what your child has eaten, if they’ve had a nap and any other information like nappy changes, or toilet training updates. They will also be logging observations against the learning curriculum, as well as creating assessments and learning reports at the touch of a button. So they will have so much more time to play, teach and care for your children.

Everything that we log on our iConnect tablets will be sent through to an app on your phones called ParentZone.

ParentZone will replace your paper learning journeys and daily diaries.

It’s being used by over 160,000 parents already so it’s a tried and tested system and we’re delighted to introduce it here.

We’ve decided to start using ParentZone to help us to work in partnership with you.

Working closely with you is really beneficial to your child’s learning and development so we will be encouraging you to comment and share information with us whenever possible.

The app itself is updated every quarter and you can email the app developers directly if you have any feature requests or suggestions. The email address is [email protected]

Walkthrough of ParentZone

I’m going to talk you through exactly what you can expect to see on ParentZone

When you first log in, you’ll see the Timeline page.

This is just like your Facebook timeline so you should be familiar with the way it works.

You’ll be able to see your child’s curriculum observations here.

You can see a photo, or sometimes a little video of their activity, with notes from your key worker. You can also see which part of the curriculum the activity links too, and if the key worker has set any next steps you will be able to see notes on this too. There is a little box underneath here for parent comments. We’d love it if you could leave a comment on these observations. Let us know if you’ve done a similar activity with your child at home or maybe this is the first time they’ve done this. Even just leaving a little comment like, “it’s great to see him having fun” is helpful for us to see and it will improve your partnership with your child’s key worker.

You might also see photos and videos of your child that aren't linked to the curriculum. These are here to show you the sorts of things they get up to each day and how much fun they’re having here!

As well as the photos you’ll also see information on what they’ve eaten each day, if they’ve had a nap or information relating to nappy changes and toilet training.

They will all appear on your timeline so you have a really easy way of seeing what your child’s been up too, without having to worry about remembering all of the information on handover or losing a piece of paper! You won’t have to worry if someone else picks them up one day, you’ll just be able to log in and get all of the information you need.

So that’s what you’ll see on the timeline.

Another really important feature for us is the Add option. So you can add photos and videos from home for your key worker to see. Getting a glimpse into the learning that takes place at home is absolutely brilliant from a key workers perspective. It really helps us to understand your child and we can plan activities to link in with things that we know are getting reinforced at home. So please do add some photos and notes yourself.

Aside from the Timeline there are some other pages you can view.

Your profile tab has information about you. You can edit these, so if you change your number or address, just change it on the profile page and we’ll be updated.

You can also change some settings here, you can change the amount of time you’ll stay logged in for and you can also change the text colour as this can often help with parents that have vision issues or learning difficulties.

ParentZone will automatically update you when something new is added, either through email or by a notification on your phone. You can change your notification preferences from your profile screen too.

The Finance page will show you your balance and list your current and previous bills so you can keep a track of your nursery payments.

You can also make payments straight from your app using the ’Make Payment’ box at the top. This will take you to a new page to pay by card. It’s completely secure and the money gets sent straight through to nursery so it’s a brilliant and quick way to make payment.

The Bookings page will show you a calendar of all of your booked sessions, and if you want to book in an extra day you can request that straight from your app too. This won’t automatically book a session, but it will send us a request and we’ll make sure we have space available and confirm it with you.

The Gallery will show you all of your photos in one place, and you can even order photobooks with your favourite photos so you can have a physical keepsake too.

ParentZone will make getting information from nursery really quick and easy and we hope you love it!

How to get access

Now you know what it’s all about, you’ll want to know how to get your hands on it!

We will be sending you all an invite via email that will ask you to register for ParentZone. You’ll need to set a secure password.

There’s an app available to download on apple and android that you can get now. And as soon as you’ve set up a log in you’ll have access.

Any questions?

We’ve pre-empted some questions and have provided answers below. We have many documents available with further security information that you can send out to any parents that ask technical questions.

What if I forget my password?

Just speak to your nursery and we can reset it for you. Please try to make your password as secure as possible without being impossible to remember!

Will I see updates instantly?

There is a process that the nursery staff need to go through to publish your photos and notes. Your key worker will normally be logging the information, but it then needs to be checked and published by a manager. So ideally, yes things will be posted almost instantly, but there may be occasions when a number of events come through at once. Everything will show on your timeline with the time and date that it was recorded.

Will I see a photo for every day my child is in nursery?

We have asked our staff to take at least one photo for every day. Again there may be instances when this doesn’t happen, but the aim is to give you a photo every single day. We know how important it is to know your children are happy and safe and a simple photo can reassure you so quickly if you’re worried.

What if my child’s Key Worker isn’t there. Will I still get updates?

Yes absolutely. It is your Key Workers responsibility to post updates about your child, but anyone can log and observation or event on any child. If your Key Worker is away the care and development of your child will be assigned to another member of staff and ParentZone will be updated by them that day instead.

How long can you have access to the information? Will it delete after a certain period of time?

No your data will not be deleted. It will build up on ParentZone, just like it does on Facebook. If you would like your data to be deleted, please speak to the nursery. There are items that we need to keep for Ofsted and other organisations but we can archive other information if requested to do so.

What sort of information would you like parents to upload?

We’d like to see anything you do that might add to your child’s learning at nursery. Show us if they’ve done something for the first time. If they’ve got a new obsession or if they’ve done something fun. If you’ve seen an activity that they’ve been doing at nursery, and they do something similar at home, take a photo and send it in. It’s great to see that learning continues at home – and your Key Worker can use the information you’ve sent and plan in activities and discussions to see if it peaks your child’s interest.