Guest Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Hi I run a pre-school and have recently cut down on numbers to improve quality. However this now means I am always working directly with the children and no longer have spare time and staff to be able to conduct apprasals during sessions. Was wondering how other pre-schools manage this. The only solution I can see at the moment is to ask people to stay for a while at the end of a session for apprasals. However our budget is very tight and to find extra pay to fund this is going to be hard. What does everyone else do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dublinbay Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 We get paid an hours overtime to come in for our appraisals. You could appeal to the good nature of your staff with a promise to buy dessert or a drink at the christmas outing if they would do it for free! Might work - you'd never know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 hey, Like your self we dont have any non contact time to do the 'paper work' or apprasals so we do them at lunch, after work or before work and like yourself our budget doesnt allow for the extra time to be paid so we take it as time back, we dont get paid if we are off poorly or if we have to stay home with our children when they are ill or have training days at school so the time back policy can work as an advantage for both ... this is how it works say you have to stay behind after work for an apprasal or staff meeting etc the time you stay back for say, 2 hours is then added on to your time back sheet, it does build up quite quickly especially if your on any training courses that run on an evening or weekend, again the hours you do are added on to your time back sheet. Then when you have to have time off for whatever reason, you claim it as time back and still get paid, it does work, if you would like i can email you a copy of our 'time back policy' and the sheets we use to record our hours on, just let me know. hope this has helped a bit and ot confused you even more. Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 That sounds like a good idea thanks Sarah. However I am hopless at this computer stuff and haven`t a clue how I go about giving you my email address - assuming we aren`t supposed to post here as I have never seen anyone else do this. Advise anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Hi I run a pre-school and have recently cut down on numbers to improve quality. However this now means I am always working directly with the children and no longer have spare time and staff to be able to conduct apprasals during sessions. Was wondering how other pre-schools manage this. The only solution I can see at the moment is to ask people to stay for a while at the end of a session for apprasals. However our budget is very tight and to find extra pay to fund this is going to be hard. What does everyone else do? How often do you do staff appraisals. We do them once a year so its not to expensive to pay overtime which is usually only an hour each. Good practice is praised when it happens and bad practice is dealt with as needed. Hope this helps. We are also a pre-school, all working closely with the children all session. Non-contact time is not an option! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 We have apprasals termly - so three times a year for all staff. I already pay all staff for a monthly staff meeting. Add to this the new holiday pay regulations which mean finding money for four more days per year and yet another hike in the minimum wage - help! Don`t get me wrong my staff are brilliant and I wish I could pay them more but in this buisness (don`t gt me started) the profit just isn`t there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 i do ours in session time, can you not get a parent helper (committee memebrs - if you are a committeee group) to cover you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 I do ours in session time....usually lunch time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 We've had our appraisals recently and the issue didn't come up. We had them with the committtee chairperson in our own time, and hers! From now on we are due to have 2 appraisals a year. Would be very interested in seeing your time sheet and time back policy Sarah. Would you be able to attach a copy to this post, having edited your setting name to maintain condidentiality? I have just introduced a monthly time sheet to record all the comings and goings to put the onus on staff to let me know what's happening rather than me remembering, but I'm not very pleased with it. I do the admin for our setting so I can appreciate that there is not much money in the pot to pay staff for all they deserve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 As we do not have an office, doing them during the session is not really an option, not is during lunch as there would always be other staff around, either eating or setting up the room. Therefore ours are done in the evenings, or at the start or end of term. We have a separate meeting rate for staff, and the appraisals are paid at this rate. This rate is lower than the session rate, and is the same for all staff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 I will try to attach the policy and the sheets but i'm not really a whiz on the pc so bear with me!!! Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 As we do not have an office, doing them during the session is not really an option, not is during lunch as there would always be other staff around, either eating or setting up the room. Therefore ours are done in the evenings, or at the start or end of term. We have a separate meeting rate for staff, and the appraisals are paid at this rate. This rate is lower than the session rate, and is the same for all staff. We used to have a meeting rate too - but when I took over the nursery I discovered it was below the minimum wage, so now I have one rate for all the hours staff claim. We also have a timesheet system (which I hated filling in when I was an employee). Now I do the wages I must say I view it very differently - I can barely remember what hours I work let alone keeping tabs on staff too! We only have yearly appraisals, and staff are paid an hour's overtime for these unless I can arrange it so that we do it in session time the appropriate cover. Maz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 Our meeting rate is above minimum wage. Oh and our appriasals are yearly too. Although it always seems to happen that there is more to talk about just after the appraisals than at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 hiya Sally, sorry its taken so long for me to reply ... i still cant figure out how to upload the policy onto this thing so i'll type a brief version for you Time back policy Time back can be given for any time used outside normal working hours for meetings, training or any other work related buissness. Time back must be previously arranged and agreed with the line manager and must be written down on the time back sheets. Time back will not be given for any employee wishing to work longer than their normal hours without previously arranging this with the line manager. Time back can be taken for any absence from work that is not paid for i.e. employee's children being ill etc and must be arranged with the line manager. Hope that gives you a rough idea of what the policy is. The time sheets are broken down into 5 columns and looks some thing like this ..... rough exapmle Date Reason Time taken Time owed total 26.9.07 Theory test 1hour 45 min -1 hr 45 mins 25.10.07 Room development 6 hours + 4hr 15 mins Hope this helps Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Hi there, I Supervise a small pre-school which is on a tight budget too. We have staff appraisals once a year, but each week, I snatch a 15 minute (and no longer) meeting with a staff member during the session (usually whilst the rest of the team have a well planned activity going). This way, I get to iron out any probs or concerns before they get too big. Also, we do have appraisals, but I do get a member of the committee in to help out - I have also changed the date -it was in the last term before Summer hols-but too hectic, so I changed it to the term after Xmas. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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