Need Some Advice Please

[beth1]

I don't want to go into much detail, this morning I set up the outdoor equipment for the children to play with. The children never got the chance to play out (it always seem to be me to insitage (sp) outdoor play). Now at the end of session everything was put away exept for the bikes (deputy and me put away), I was in another room talking to the chair and PLA development worker.

 

Anyway I was after some advice, should I call a meeting for this problem as a group (athough all will not be able to turn up) or talk to the staff individually during the session? This is to ensure that everything is done before leaving the building, plus to make a list of what needs putting away at the end of every session (a list of equipment in the main hall, side room and outdoor area to be put away for all to see).

 

 

I am calling a meeting next week, to go through everything with them for the first 2 weeks back while I am away (really starting to get stressed out Mrs O may be turning up). In this meeting I am going to delagate that a staff member will be in charge of the outdoor play area, I want all staff to be involved in planning for the children not just me (who by the way is getting behind with it), get the deptuty to work with me so I can train them to understand how to do the keyperson system books work and then cascade it to the others. Would this work?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Beth

 

P.S. just read this back, no wonder I haven't got a lot of time to do anything I still need to complete one assgment for college, good news I have an extention but for different reasons.

Edited May 13, 2008 by beth1

[narnia]

yes, Beth, I think you should make it clear at your meeting just what your expectations are about what happens: what comes out, what goes away etc and that everyone is responsible for dealing with it.In fact, come September, they'll have to be outdoors,like it or no, so now's the time to get used to it,for sure!Good luck with it

 

and good luck with your essays,I too have just been given a bit of an extension to enable me to finish!

[Inge]

I would do it at a meeting to as many as possible, it is more formal and you can state your expectations, and then have a meeting with all those not able to attend fro whatever reason either individually or together.

 

we have a policy of no staff leaving until given 'permission' by the person in charge for that day, (not always the manager in our case), even if they are busy they either wait or may interrupt if need be to ask if it is Ok to leave, this way we have developed a method of no one going until all is done, and they work faster towards the end goal because of it.. really don't know how this happened it just developed that way and works for us, perhaps it is as it is polite to ask to leave and not just walk out of a team. . Most are Ok if interrupted with this as they understand why.

 

As to outside play, it took time for all weather outside and it is still resisted at times, and must admit to not always going out but by stating your expectations and listing what you want out each day eventually worked for us. Took a while and if they do not work as a team delegate areas to set up, we did and after a while found everyone began to help each other and now no longer needed.

 

More importantly for us was getting it out every day as things failed to appear as they knew it was going away at the end of the day!!!

 

Good luck

 

Inge

[Andreamay]

think about introducing appraisals makes it easier to talk abouit different issues

[Guest]

I wholeheartedly agree with making your expectations explicit. We developed a written list of what needed to go where at the end of each day and gave copies to all staff and displayed on the wall. Initially this was because we had some difficult staff who were effectively working to rule and did not believe setting up and putting away was part of their job. However with our current staff it worked well as it emerged they did not know genuinely where things went on particular days. They were often hesitant to interrupt if myself and the manager were discussing something. Don't get me wrong - some stuff still gets left but much less frequently.

 

We also added jobs to the rota so everyone took turns at, for example, taking the towels home to be washed. By having the rota no-one ended up left to do it all. We are just developing our outdoor area and using it daily and we have decided to put the risk assessment for it and the opening up of the door (instigating) on the rota also as otherwise we feel it will always be left to myself or manager and if we are in a meeting/on the phone/etc the children will not be able to go out.

 

I think sometimes other staff can feel they are not entirely up to speed with what is to happen when and this causes them to wait for others to take the lead. By explicitly asking someone to take responsibility for it the confusion is avoided and they feel empowered. Of course other times the staff just can't be bothered, but that is another story all together!

[Guest]

Beth we have a laminated list in the main room.It's not 'aimed' at any one but comes in useful when we have supply staff/students etc and can always be refered too by staff.I even make a point of being seen to check it myself.

 

Things to do.....

 

before the session begins

fill water tray-2 buckets 1 hot 1 cold

Take play dough out of tub and divide into 3 on boards

 

end of morning session...

end of day...

 

Monday morning...

Friday afternoon...

 

The same could be done for the outside play.If its up for a while and each member of staff has been told about its existance and they continue not to complete tasks you have some recourse.

 

We are having trouble with our T/A staff and outside play-not setting up-not going out when timetabled-not relieving-throwing equipment into my tidy and LOGICAL outside store when tidying up We are thinking around this and looking at changing our planning to given more detail for setting up as they set up bare minimum thats on the plan.I spent the NUT strike day cleaning and sorting the outside store.I then took pictures in a panorama (aka David Hockney ) and have position these for tidying up.Next step is Job list like inside.

[beth1]

I wholeheartedly agree with making your expectations explicit. We developed a written list of what needed to go where at the end of each day and gave copies to all staff and displayed on the wall. Initially this was because we had some difficult staff who were effectively working to rule and did not believe setting up and putting away was part of their job. However with our current staff it worked well as it emerged they did not know genuinely where things went on particular days. They were often hesitant to interrupt if myself and the manager were discussing something. Don't get me wrong - some stuff still gets left but much less frequently.

 

We also added jobs to the rota so everyone took turns at, for example, taking the towels home to be washed. By having the rota no-one ended up left to do it all. We are just developing our outdoor area and using it daily and we have decided to put the risk assessment for it and the opening up of the door (instigating) on the rota also as otherwise we feel it will always be left to myself or manager and if we are in a meeting/on the phone/etc the children will not be able to go out.

 

I think sometimes other staff can feel they are not entirely up to speed with what is to happen when and this causes them to wait for others to take the lead. By explicitly asking someone to take responsibility for it the confusion is avoided and they feel empowered. Of course other times the staff just can't be bothered, but that is another story all together!

 

 

We do something simliar for a rota (not outdoors new thing really), normally the team are good at putting things away. Anyway I have ended up making an equipment list sheet to go on the door, now each day I am going to write up who is responsible for putting which room away. If this doesn't work I don't know what will.

 

I am doing appriasals in July for all my staff team which is going to be fun. We also have our new advisory teacher comming in next week, I am going to mention about planning (fun, fun, fun) and about biccy's learning wall that may just help the staff with planning.

 

biccy I have just seen your post whilst writing this, the pictures look ideal for our indoor cupboard (job for the 'cupboard' officer! )

 

 

Beth

[apple]

I certainly would have a rota for setting up outside rather than just allocating one person. Past experience shows for us that it is quite time consuming,even consider having 2 staff each day to do it. Perhaps everyone to clear up and the end of the day too? Hope you get it worked out

[beth1]

I certainly would have a rota for setting up outside rather than just allocating one person. Past experience shows for us that it is quite time consuming,even consider having 2 staff each day to do it. Perhaps everyone to clear up and the end of the day too? Hope you get it worked out

 

Sorry I mean having one person to take overall control of the outdoor area e.g. when do the childen go out, what needs to be taken out. All staff go out at once due to the numbers of children and where our outdoor area is.

 

 

Beth