Pre School And School

[Guest]

I just wondered whether there are any more Preschools in a similar position as us. We are based in a small primary school. We are in the same room as the reception class, the reception teacher and I plan together for all the children, making it easier to differentiate. We have a committee made of school governors and the head teacher, who I am answerable to.

 

Without the school, the preschool would have no where to o and without preschool, there would have to be a class of Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. We are working towards extending school services to Breakfast, After School, Holiday clubs, parent classes and support etc. which is also part of my job.

How involved are you with the schools?

[Guest Biker]

Elle,

We are an "Extended School." We have a building within the school grounds and run breakfast club, after school club and two pre-school sessions.We also provide a lunch club giving a full service from 8 -6.

We too have a governing body committee and as employees of the school are answerable to the head teacher.We liase closely with the head of foundation stage who is also our line manager.

 

It is interesting you ask how closely we are involved with the school as it is something my colleague and I(we job share the role of running the extended school)have been talking about recently.We have children who attend our pre-school for some of the day and then the school nursery for the other half.We are very aware that we are currently not sharing our planning with each other so intend to develop this .

Would be very interested in how you find this.

Biker

[Guest]

Hi there Elle

 

We are a small pre-school based on primary school ground and until now have worked independently (apart from the odd get together). However have just discovered that we will be taken over by school over summer hols so would be interested how effective your planning is as obviously this is something we will shortly be taking part in. I am slightly scared that the sort of planning the school wants is not as child led and flexible as it is as present but we shall see.

 

Please tell me all the positives we are very pleased to be getting sick pay and a pension but apart from that are a bit apprehensive!!

[Guest]

Very interesting to hear your stories, we also have pre-school, now called nursery sharing premises with reception, but historically they are accountable to their own committee which is indepedent of the school.

 

We share our planning though each are responsible forour own, we gain immeasurably from working together and the continuity for the children is excellent. The support for both teams of staff is also invaluable.

 

We are currently striving to develop the progression of skills for the children as we develop our second year of practice. Hope you all enjoy it and thrive!

[Guest]

It is good to know there are others in similar situations as us. As I said we do plan together but have to show separate plans for Ofsted, although they are almost exactly the same! Just have some differentiation for individual, older and younger children.

 

Although we work as one unit according to Ofsted and the county, we are separate entities. The preschool had inspection recently (we got a good by the way) and the inspector saw what we were doing and approved, but officially had to inspect as a stand alone setting, which we are not!

 

Shelly 35- how are you being taken over by school? Is early year dept behind you?

Cos ours is not! Our head was told she cannot employ pre school staff, fortunately she believes in putting children first and we are collecting evidence to show how well children are doing.

Positives- being part of school means, for us anyway, more security, whole school resources( But difficult to get new equipment) make sure you have a budget, supply staff on tap, better pay, paid holidays, to mention but a few. I won’t lie to you it was difficult at first to try to think of a whole school approach, but it does make sense.

 

Jen wren, you sound in the same boat as us. How do you get on with Ofsted and your Early years dept?

There are so many questions I want to ask you all!!!!!!!

[Guest]

Sorry that I haven't been around for a while - our pre-school are accountable to their own committee on which the school has one representative, a school governor. We work very much as a partnership. Ofsted inspected nursery separately and didn't look at Reception at all. School is expecting it's own Ofsted and I'm not sure how they are going to judge the partnership.

[Jester]

Sorry that I haven't been around for a while - our pre-school are accountable to their own committee on which the school has one representative, a school governor. We work very much as a partnership. Ofsted inspected nursery separately and didn't look at Reception at all. School is expecting it's own Ofsted and I'm not sure how they are going to judge the partnership.

 

I am the aforementioned reception teacher who works with elle and at the moment we are really working hard to provide evidence that what we are doing is of great benefit to the children, families and community- we know what we do works!!

 

The preschool had their Ofsted and it was on a day where the reception children were out at the gym with the year 1/2s, in the afternoon we were altogether and the inspector commented on how much better the afternoon was because we were working as a partnership and we think that is what got us the ofsted we got. Although utimately its was just the pre school that was inspected she still appeared to take into consideration the partnership.

 

It will be interesting to see how Ofsted are with our situation when they do the whole school...