School Nursery Issue! Help!

[Guest]

Hi

I have been a member on here for a little while but rarely get the chance to post so hi everyone.

I work part time in a school nursery. we are only a morning nursery so my jobshare and I do ppa cover in the afternoons.

We are in the process of sorting out our home visits etc for Sept. As far as were aware (until today) we had 9 starting in September and 9 in Jan. This number always rises and we average about 24 children.

HOWEVER.... Today our headteacher has informed my jobshare that we are not going to have a jan intake anymore so all 18 will start in sept. (letters have already gone out to parents stating whether their child will start in sept or jan! also we only have 4 days left before breaking up!) We only have 1 teacher and a nursery nurse and our headteacher stopped us staggering the new children in last year. So we are going to have 18 new children starting on one day. 4 of whom will have only turned 3 the week before. I have only worked in the nursery for a couple of years but the children were always 3 1/2 unless they were a priority placement.

I am struggling to see how this is going to work. I know the head needs to make as much money as possible but this cannot possibly be the best for the children. aagggghhhh! any tips or advice would be really welcomed.

Thanks.

[Scarlettangel]

Sounds like a nightmare!!!

 

We don't do home visits at all and whether we stagger the nursery entry depends on how many new ones we are having in at each intake. We also have a very flexible attendance plan that suits each individual child!

 

This year they will all start together but we will only open for an hour am and pm.

So "old" and new children can access nursery everyday for the first week but only for an hour.

Following this we will see what each child can manage/ cope with...... some are coming to us from other full day care situations and so once settled in a new environment I expect they will be full time very quickly.

 

As for such a terribly late decision from your Head............... I wonder if he/ she is trying to get his numbers up in september for the fast approaching single funding formula?

Can't really see another reason, though it is early and I have a BIG headache this morning!!

 

It sounds like a massive lack of communication on the Heads part and not good for any of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a manager he should have talked this over with his staff long before letters etc were due to go out and I would have hoped he could have talked about the reason for such a decision too!

 

I can't help but wanted to add my scribble to your thoughts!

Keep us posted!!

[mundia]

Hi Weezie.

Our children always started in September (39 of them) but we did stagger over 4 weeks, and I remember the year well when we had 12 August birthdays! We did a proper settling in which was individual for each child, which meant that some stayed the whole session almost straight away and some took many weeks just to stay for an hour.Can you talk to your head abut the reasons for the change and the opportunity to have proper settling in sessions..this is so vitally important for the children, thier families and the wellness of the nursery group (not to mention the staff!).

 

Can you say a little more about yor thining abut your head just wanting to make money please?

 

Thinking about it, can both ou and your job share go and see the head, and make your points to him/her.

 

Good luck

[finleysmaid]

it does seem extraordinary that a head should make such a late decision(what do the Govenors say about it?)

anyway sounds like you are going to have to put up with it and i do not think you will have time to do home visits....so i guess the question is why do you do them? if it is because you want to get to know the families? if so why not invite parents in until their little ones are a bit more settled - you'll probably find that a lot of them will settle quickly but there will always be some who take that bit longer try and make it a fun start with lots of support for the parents - will get the parents talking too ....is there somewhere parents/carers could go for a coffee to test the waters with leaving their littlies and to get to know each other ? If your head is like most heads i know probably not likely to change his/her mind so try to make the best of it none of us like change especially when it forced on us

[Chill]

This is obviously a very late change so a shock for you however lots of nurseries do work like this and once you make the adjustment you may even see some advantages. From the heads point of view, one teacher and one nursery nurse for 9 children does not make financial sense and I am sure that there are some parents who will be very happy not to be paying fees elsewhere. Nursery education is always a balance of what is best for the child and how to cover the costs. On the plus side you will have a group that will settle together. You can take your time in this and establish a wonderful group established for the year.

[Guest]

thanks for your advice everyone. What i meant about the money is that our head is thinking about getting money for as many ch as possible in sept. this is her reason. I can understand that but I feel the education and happiness of the children is more important. But im not a head so hey ho!!

i am more annoyed by the short notice. We are going to look so unorganised sending out letters this late etc etc! Grrrr!

[Guest]

ours start 15 in a morning and 15 in afternoon for 4 weeks, as you are only morning sessions could you have half doing 9 - 11 and 1 doing 11 - 1 ish, times suited to suit your timetable and do this for 4 weeks?