Guest Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Hello Everyone! Right well, I am the nursery teacher at a nursery which is part of a school (so not a private one). I was told at the beginning of the year that I had a £300 budget for the year- which is exactly the same as every other class in the school. This seems completely unfair- not only because of the sheer amount of resources it takes to keep a nursery up and running, but also due to the fact that we have 56 children over 2 daily sessions, and all the other classes only have 30. So basically, after buying some new aprons, paint, paper, glue, tape, a few bits for Christmas and a tuff tray- the £300 is all but gone. I have explained this to the head- who seems unsympathetic. I am also expected to buy the baby wipes, the antibacterial sprays and the toilet cleaners that we use daily, the ingredients to make playdough and for cooking activities, and all of the other things, such as shaving foam, pasta's etc for various KUW and PD related activities throughout the year. Oh, as well as the replacing or buying any new resources. This seems completely impossible. Up until I started this September, the nursery had always operated a .50 per weeks charge per child to keep the nursery ticking over in terms of weekly consumables, and also to build up money to buy new bigger resources. This always worked well, but apparently the head did not know anything about this- and put a stop to it. Up until now I have paid for all of the flour/butter/sugar/food colouring for playdough and cooking activities- the pumpkins for hallowween etc etc. It has to stop! So other than moaning!- I have a few questions to ask- 1- How much do you think/know you spend in a year on your class's? Including everything! 2- Do you have any advice for fund raising ideas? 3- Do you have any stories similar to mine- and how do you cope?! I worked as an EYP at a private nursery before training to be a teacher- and I was rarely out of pocket as the owners understood what it takes to keep a nursery up and running properly! Thanks! Lindsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mundia Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Oh Lyndsy I know that feeling well. I also battled and battled this one with my Head when I was FS coordinator. I had the smallest budget in the school with the most no of children in my phase (100). In addition KS1 and 2 could access 'subject' budgets but we never could. So when £10000 was spent on books in the rest of the school we didn't even get one book. And when £40000 was spent on outdoor areas, we got nothing then either. Like you we also had to buy out of our budget the things the others didn't, buckets, mops, tissues, washing up liquid, flour, you know the things you go through tonnes of. To be fair though, we did get more than £300 which is a nonsense really. All I kept saying over and over to my Head was I cant provide quality on this, and at one point I was told I could have more money if I lost a TA in reception (we only had one anyway!) AS you can see this is one of my really big bugbears about budgets in school, not that there aren't great heads who resource their EYFS well, but just that your story, and mine, are not uncommon. There are some conversations here about fundraisers if you do a search. I never liked it myself as I felt that it encouraged the school to continue to underfund us because we were raising the money ourselves from families who couldn't afford it. As long as were seen to 'manage' it was never seen as a problem or issue. Do you have any access to any petty cash budget for things like cookery ingredients etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Like Mundia I would say that fundraising the money is definitely not the answer, but then nor is paying for it yourself. You could write a list of everything you need and how quickly you go through these. For example, per month we need three bottles of bleach, 15 packs of wet wipes, etc. Take this to your head and explain that you are currently having to buy these things out of your own money and that not only can you not afford it but also that it's not really acceptable. Ask if you can reintroduce the 50p thing, or point out that you need some more money from the budget. Stand your ground and don't let her fob you off. In fact it might be best to actually arrange a time to meet when perhaps someone else can cover your class. If you just try to catch her at a random moment she'll be able to brush you off more easily. Approach the issue extremely seriously (not that I'm sure you aren't already, but you don't want to come across as 'just having a moan') "I'm very concerned about the lack of essential resources in nursery..." or "I'm unable to keep up basic hygiene procedures in nursery because..." or something along those lines. Point out that a number of things you are having to buy every other class gets from a central resource bank because they just have cleaners who do the cleaning, or they're getting art resources from a school stock room etc. Perhaps the head doesn't yet realise that you aren't accessing the rest of the school's resources and might give you access to these. Make notes before hand and take them in to the conversation (I always find I forget to say something, especially when faced with someone trying to 'shoot down' all my complaints. Afterwards I realise exactly why their arguments were invalid but I forgot to say why at the time.) Ask her what she wants you to do about it, thus putting the ball in her court. "I have no more money in my budget, you can see I didn't spend it irresponsibly, so what should I do about buying playdough ingredients and cleaning products?" If she's still unsympathetic then all you can do is get tough. Stop buying these things and perhaps go straight to the governors or make an actual written complaint to the headteacher about it. It seems extreme but the less fuss you kick up now, the bigger the problem will get. It's awful to have to cause bad feelings and you don't want to fall out with your head or look like you're causing trouble but it is really unacceptable that as teachers we're expected to buy our own resources. It's like office workers being expected to bring in their own personal home computers and a stack of envelopes to work, then popping off afterwards to the post office to get stamps and stick them in the mail box! It wouldn't be acceptable anywhere else so why in teaching? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 I know there has been a recent thread about how we are not suppose to charge for snack BUT without it our nursery would not beable to provide the essentials to deliver the EYFS-playdough ingredients, pumpkins, shaving foam etc We ask nicely for 50p which covers snack and the extras. Reception class doesn't have this and last year when I was covering PPA 2 afternoon's and trying to provide activities the class teacher was reluctant to do because they were messy I was well out of pocket and I'm the Nursery Nurse not the class teacher. We also get a class amount same as school classes-£200 in our case and the foundation stage co-ordinator gets a small amount to get shared resources which this year was a dark cave-piff the money went. We have to negotiate for resources from subject leaders who maybe willing to help-got some quick cricket stumps on loan from the PE store for a child who always wanted to play cricket outdoors We have done well recently at getting items from vouchers schemes from Tesco's, Morrisons etc. If your school doesn't run the schemes ask if you call run one but appeal to the full school to help collect for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Thank you for all of your help and advice guys. It is really appreciated. I too agree that fundraising is not the way to go, not only because it gives them more reason not to fund us properly, but that our 'Friends of' organisation already does this throughout the year. Mundia- I was told at the beginning of the year that pretty much whatever I wanted for the nursery (within reason) I could have, through additional funds to the school, petty cash, and left over money from other subjects. This has obviously not happened! I think I was painted a lovely pretty picture when I was hired! I did ask about the petty cash, but again was told that I have a budget to pay for everything. Kariana- Thank you- I will approach my head with all of the facts- and hope that it goes well. You are so right though- an office worker would not be expected to pay for paper and pens! It is infuriating! Biccy- I can completely understand why you charge .50p- such a little amount makes a huge difference. I was told that in the past the .50p was a huge help in buying all essential things- but as well as paying for food tastings and buying new toys and books! Just to add to insult to injury- We have extra sessions every week that the chidlren can pay for after their 15 free hours. On average- we bank £90 a week through this, but of course asking for some of the money led to me being told that I have a budget! When i joined the nursery the head was blatant about the fact that the nursery needed a new lease of life, tidying up, cleaning out and a fresh new outlook, and really made it sound like I would have a decent amount of money in addition to my meager budget- as she said no money had been spent on the nursery in over 20 years (other than budget). I spent about a week in the summer doing this, such as throwing away broken toys, removing bleach and other harmful substances such as wallpaper paste with fungicide in it which clearly said keep away from kids and animals, hack saws and numerous other things. After all of this- and the continuing issues with my nursery nurse who has worked there for over 20 years (who hates me for having a clear out) I feel like enough is enough! Well I am off to make a list of all of the things that I need to buy on a weekly/monthly basis, and put together my argument! Have a great weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Basic stock like paper/paint etc should be coming directly from the stock bought for the whole school, as a nursery class you are part of the whole school not an add on. I would never buy this out of class budget as no other class would be expected to! Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Good luck with approaching your head. Let us know how it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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