Guest Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 Sorry all, here again with my inexperience and understanding of Children's Centres. If a CC is built on an exisiting school site (even attached to it by link corridor) to what extent does the childcare provider work with the reception class, or vice versa? Is this determined by the school? CC management? or other body LA? Is it expected that you would work together, even if 99% your children did not feed into that particular school?
Shiny Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 In my experience being on a school site (not CC though) it was down to the staff from each setting how much/little we work with the school. We have an excellent relationship. And if you move premises you will probably find most of the new children coming to you would go to the school you are attached to. When we moved to the school site about 15% went to different schools, we now have about 2 per year (about 4%). Parents who drop off at the school use us more now as our start times are the same as the school so can drop them off together.
Guest Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 (edited) Thanks Shiny - It sounds like most of your children already attended the school where you moved to? and it is not a CC? What if a school is in an area of high deprivation and known locally as a 'failing' school -so parents choose to send their children elsewhere, because of its reputation? I cannot see parents moving their children to the 'failing' school attached to the CC from the high achieving primary school a mile away, just because the pre school is located there - hence the concern of how closely the 2 settings (pre school and 'failing' school) would be expected to work together. Would like to hear from anyone in CC attached to school? How closely are you expected to work together? Edited March 11, 2008 by Guest
Andreamay Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 I agree myhenroxanne. I am sure our parents wouldnt move with us if we moved to a 'failing' school. we are inundated with parents wanting to come to our pre-sch and feeder school from the 'another' school even tho the pre-school is part of a CC and they are able to offer more sessions/full days then we are.
Shiny Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 I apologise, I didn't make myself very clear, what I was trying to say was your new site would bring in more children from the school you moved to. Currently 99% of your children go to a different feeder school, but this could change with new intakes and parents being able to get their children in with you. It was meant to be a positive. Our school is in a deprived area, just because it is attached to the school doesn't mean all children will progress to that school. We only have less children coming to us from different feeder schools because we have moved further from them.
Guest Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 Andreamay - Hypothetical question here - if you were to close and be relocated on site at CC of 'failing' school, and there was no other pre school/nursery in the area, do you think you would still retain your same parents? Andreamay - could do with a chat/pm - sounds like you have you experienced CC provision in your area? Sorry Shiny, if I didn't understand - I've got so much going on here at the mo - its all happening too quickly, and I'm getting myself in knots! - lots of possibilities being thrown our way from LA, committee and primary school who we feed into - however, all conflicting!! I do realise that if we moved to a CC we would possibly pick up children from the 'failing' school , but their embarrassingly low numbers currently would only fill approx 6 places and enquiries have found a none existent waiting list? If we were to relocate to a CC site, I want to guarantee and convince exisiting and future parents that they could still send children to successful school - but if we had to work closely with 'failing' school - parents would probably not come. Hence the first question of this post - oh dear I'm rambling now.....HELP!
Marion Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 We are in the process of having a children's centre built on our school site. It will be connected to our FSU and the childcare will be provided by a private day nursery but will be overseen by our nursery teacher and she wants free flow between settings.
belle06 Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 I manage a childrens centre attached to a school. We work very closely with the school and the school are very supportinve of us even though we are a private company. There has been talk recently of the school spliting the education funding with the daycare to accomodate the 15 hours. We have children who attend the CC but then go on to a different school not the one we are attched to. We also have children from the school who do the wrap around care with us so we have the best of both worlds.
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