A keyperson has special responsibility for a group of children. Parents and children know the name of their keyperson from the beginning of their involvement with the pre-school. A keyperson will ensure that the needs and interests of each child are recognised by the pre-school so that activities can be planned to meet these needs and encourage a desire to learn.

The Keyperson’s main duties are :-

1. To assist the child to settle into the pre-school by:
• Introducing the child and parents to the pre-school.
• Keeping a special watchful eye on the child in the first few sessions.
• Assisting the child to integrate into the pre-school as necessary.

2. To provide for the emotional needs of the child, e.g. to comfort and reassure the child at any time of distress.

3. To plan in conjunction with the parents/carers a curriculum/play plan for each child, ensuring that account is taken of each child’s race, culture, religion, language and family values by:
• observing, keeping records and monitoring the child’s progress.
• liaising with parents, encouraging them to contribute expertise.

4. To develop a day to day rapport with parents by:
• informing parents of their child’s activities.
• to be available, especially at the beginning and end of each session, to answer queries.

5. To contribute information about an individual child’s needs to the planning of pre-school curriculum framework, whilst respecting confidentiality as necessary.

6. If your child attends the pre-school on a day when their keyperson is not working, your child will be allocated another member of staff for that day.

7. The keyperson will maintain a record of observations, photos and videos on the Tapestry Online Learning Journal. This will be updated on a regular basis.

It is important to recognise that a keyperson does NOT:

• Shadow her/his children throughout the session.
• Liaise only with her/his group of children
• Prevent other adults from developing a relationship with her/his key children and spend every session carrying out observations on his/her key children.