Guest Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 how do you organise your rooms with babies and young ones? Do you use the keyworker system? Are there any other organisational tech you use? please advise!
Gill_Oliver Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 We have a large baby room and have a separate area for non mobile and mobile babies. The non mobile babies have a fenced off area that ajoins the mobile area and has age appropriate toys, activity centres etc. The mobile babies have the run of the main room and also an adjoining room. 1 room has the ball pool, physical play equipment and construction toys and the other has the home corner, kitchen,book corner, puzzles etc, sensory toys etc. The sort of toys we put out are rotated on a daily basis and they also have access to both sand/water, mark making and painting. Once they are walking confidently they move down to the 1-2 year old room. Were lucky to have 2 separate sleep rooms one for the non mobile babies and 1 for the mobile babies - once they begin to walk they sleep on mats in the main room ready for the move downstairs. We have a key worker system in place and each key worker spends time with their allocated children each day. (this has to be flexible because of individual routines). Key workers also settle in new babies, monitor development, write progress reports, keep picture profile books up to date, write reports and talk to parents at parents evening and settle the children into the next room when it is time to move on. We have a daily routine that has to be very flexible because of individual routines but we have certain activities that happen at certain times during the day e.g. Circle time and music @11.30am and Messy play @ 3.
Sue R Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 Well, Olly, thet's a nice, comprehensive description!! Sounds pretty much the way our babies and toddlers are organised - as I don't work with that age group, I can't be more specific, sorry. Sue
Guest Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 that was comprehensive have most setings moved to keyworker groupings? is seems to be very popular now.? Olly do you have hand over meetings when your baby'moves' to the next room or age grouping? How does the change of keyworker affect baby's behavior? How many babies does each keyworker manage? Is it 1:3? I knwo some settings have staff on different shifts- late or early how does that work witht he keyworker system if a child's keyworker is on late shift etc. I'm already looking forward to your responses. Are ther any good books that i could refer to? i've ordered on by J lindon- which seems to be quite good.
Gill_Oliver Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 Most settings I know of use the key worker system and from what I have seen of local Ofsted reports those that don't have been asked to. (obviously different areas/inspectors have different ideas). We don't have meetings as such when a child moves rooms but we do complete a detailed transfer form prior to the move. As we are quite a large nursery we have to rotate staff frequently to cover sickness, holidays etc so most children know all the staff (40 odd of us). We have never had a problem with changing key workers/rooms etc but we do take as long as it needs in accordance with parents wishes. I finally lost a baby that has been transferring/visiting for 3 months and it was only a few weeks ago that he was happy and contented in his new surroundings. Another one couldn't wait to get down and never returned after only 2 days of settling in. All of them are so different that we can't have a set way of doing things and just take each child as an individual. Each key worker has between 3 or 4 babies and this is normally a mixture of full timers and part timers. Yes we all work shifts, early, middle and late but this doesn't affect key worker activities as these happen during the main part of the day when everyone is around. All the babies interact with all staff so we never seem to have a problem no matter who is about. Can't think of any great books I'm afraid but if there is anything else I can help you with let me know.
Sue R Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 Olly, your nursery sounds just great - a bit like ours !! If I ever need a job, can you put a word in for me????????? Sounds just like us, except we have what we call 'visits' to the next room - more to familiarise the child with the surroundings, than the staff. Like you, most know all the children and vice versa - even the babies know me and I'm not often allowed out of my pen!! Sue
Gill_Oliver Posted January 29, 2005 Posted January 29, 2005 Lol Sue much as I love my job the way I have felt this week you would be welcome to it. Nothing is ever easy lol.
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