29 replies to this topic

[mulder]

HI, just interested to know if preschools ( we are a private one ) qualify for elc's as schools do, as our computer was given to us refurbished and is starting to struggle. We already collect tesco vouchers but need to find ways of raising capital to upgrade our machine. As only a smallish group, find it hard to raise funds. Anyone know of any funding available to help? Thanx Kizzy x :D :D

[Sue J]

This is a bit of a sore point for me Kizzy. I had been asking the same question for ages. I have just found out that, here in West Sussex, instead of awarding each setting with an amount of money, they have used the money to buy software themselves and are setting up a 'library' that we can borrow from. I am not pleased with this at all as, none of the settings were consulted or were even aware that they were taking this step until too late. We'll see if we ever get to borrow the software - if our 'Resources' boxes were anything to go by it will be a fiasco -but that's another story!!!
The ELC's were supposed to be used for the software and not to buy a computer as far as I am aware.
In different parts of the country the settings were given an amount per child towards software, I believe - you might be lucky - I hope you are.

Sue J

[angie88]

Hi Kizzy

I recieved a letter from my LEA informing me that we will be recieving money (£300) specifically for ICT. We are a private pre-school in Bucks. Haven't spent it yet as I had to put a list of things and give it to the treasurer, so who knows when that will be.

Angie

[hali]

we recieved ELC money last year in our pre school about £250 i think :D

[mulder]

angie88, on Mar 21 2005, 05:21 PM, said:

Hi Kizzy

I recieved a letter from my LEA informing me that we will be recieving money (£300) specifically for ICT.  We are a private pre-school in Bucks.  Haven't spent it yet as I had to put a list of things and give it to the treasurer, so who knows when that will be.

Angie

Hello,

Thanks for the info, will phone up my county council and try and find out more. kizzy xx

[leedwa]

Hi

It's not just private preschools/nurseries that are having this problem. I got nowhere last year when I looked into this. This year I have been told we don't qualify as we had not had an ofsted inspection before 2003-2004!!?? We didn't have funded four year olds when centre was last inspected. Just been inspected recently (2005) but apparently that does not count. The three other early years centres (local education authority) have all got about £1,300 and we get nothing! Not fair really. Will look in to this further after Easter!

[mulder]

Leedwa,

Nice to know that part of this job is trying to be a detective and piece together the info - I have been trying to find out for about a year now. Why is it that everywhere works differently - so aggravating

kizzy xx finally found how to reply without quoting what everyone says... yippee

[mulder]

Hello me again,

Just to update you all - have just come of the phone to my EYDCP Funding Person and they have informed me that they have been sent an email from their financial person about nursery e-learning.... and she has been advised of funds that need to be allocated. how spooky, is that? So I am waiting with baited breath.... won't hold it as she is going on holiday and so is her financial person so in 3 weeks I could have my answer............. keep you posted :D

kizzy xx

[Sue R]

Our Director has received notification that we will receive in the region of £300.00 per Nursery, but it can only be spent on resources on a specific website. We had been hoping to set one of the children's pcs up for the internet!

Never mind, better than nothing!

Sue

[mulder]

still waiting .....

kizzy xx

[Linda McDowell]

So are we Kizzy!! We had to complete a form and send it back in January as to how many children we had in the pre-school who were eligible and did we comply with the criteria, ie we had the hardware to support it, we had funded children etc. etc. We still don't know whether we are going to get any money and I now have more children who are eligible because we are now into another term and extra children are getting funding!!
I'm not holding my breath!
Linda

[Steve]

In East Sussex nurseries are being asked to send in forms, as theoretically ELC money ought to be available - but they have to meet certain strange criteria on what computer equipment the nursery possesses...

The decision varies greatly depending on the LEA it seems which is fair enough I guess. But it would be good to have some general guidance to turn to!

Incidentally, we did at one stage investigate the possibility of having the subscription fee for the FSF paid by ELC's in qualifying settings. Sadly with no luck

[qu1dzy]

I've heard from our very helpful Eyrs and have been told that you get a£9 per full time child. He couldn't tell me what is classed as a full time child. His exact words were "a full time child is probably equal to two early years children"
When I asked what could the ELc's be spent on, I was told only software. No equipment. So if you are a small setting with no pc, or a very basic pc with no extras you can have all the software you need.

net x
:angry

[Andreamay]

We decided to raise funds to buy a new computer to enable us to use all the software we bought with elc we were struggling to spend all that was allocated to us yet were desperate for a digital camera and printer/scanner ridiculas!

[mulder]

why is it that they never think of the obvious...... and how come these days you are expected to download information from websites i.e ofsted, dfes etc as a matter of course. Are they blind? We don't need software..... we need computers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOOHHHH my blood is boiling...

kizzy xx