Please Help!

[Guest]

i would be grateful for any suggestions-i am a preschool leader of a charitable pre school-we are run by a very very very big charity who now offer provision within many childrens centres. they have now decided that our preschools which are run from a portacabin and former shop are outdated and insufficient therefore have mentioned redundancy!!!! they have offered alternative employment at two children centres which i went to view yesterday-i am so dissapointed-their nursery provision was nowhere near as nice as ours-bare walls, minimum staff ratios,minimum planning on display, hardly any childrens work on display-i could go on and on-i feel absolutely gutted-what can we do to avoid this????

[Guest]

Thats awful! surely if the problem is the buildings which are insufficient they should look at improving them rather then just closing down!

 

Could you put together a proposal to rebuild/improve the buildings?

[Helen]

I do sympathise: I worked as a QTS in a Children's Centre for a year, and it looked just like you described. But, if you work there, you could make it so much better

 

What role are you likely to have there?

 

Are you in a position to put together a list of the possible improvements to the CC, which would bring it up to nearer your current standard, and point these out to your employers. If they thought you were looking at the bigger picture, and had the best interests of the nursery in mind, they may put you in a position where you could make huge changes. A passionate, dedicated employee is every employers dream

 

It's not all doom and gloom, really. My old CC looked like a different place after a few months of consistent, high quality input from a small group of practitioners.

[Inge]

could you investigate and work with the community to show that there is a need for your kind of provision, I am assuming that there is here, that parents need a choice, not all want the same environment , and children need to be able to also have a variety of places to go to as not all respond well in one may do in another, children have preferences too.

 

Think it may come down to being able to prove or show that it is a provision that is needed and doing well, and while may need updating and refurbishing, this would be to some advantage. Perhaps local community could look at fundraising to help with refurbishment.

 

They are probably looking as costs, income, and other local factors, and if other more up to date places they own locally are not full can see that by closing some the others will hopefully then have more children etc.

 

(Not quite the same but we had a large loss of children one year due to 'new buildings ' locally.. being a small charity we weathered the storm and parents came back once they found that while we are not the best modern and up to date building it is what we do that matters.)

 

Inge

 

Also agree that a provision is only what the staff and children make it.. unless there are restrictions on some of the things you comment on, it is always possible to try to change things .

Edited November 27, 2008 by Inge

[Chill]

This is a worrying development in Early Years and one that has been touched on before. Once a setting has been closed it is very difficult to get it going again.

[jean4459]

Sorry to hear about dilema. Have you not thought of taking over the preschool yourself? If it is a charitable status they have to give all the settings belongings to another charity (you) for a minium payment. Surely your parents would back you rather than go to a drab new setting. GOODLUCK.

[Guest]

I agree with jean4459 could you not look at going alone. Is your provision well used and sustainable? Have you competition in the area? I would look into all this and then make a decision on your future. If it is that you are going to have to move to one of the other settings then make changes from the inside. As they say 'one step at a time'. Good luck in trying to find your answer and keep us in touch with all that you do.

[hali]

just wanted to wish you luck x