Back On To The Forum

[Guest]

HI All,

 

after a long break from the forum i am back on now. I am currently working as a Deputy Manager in a nursery, but i have an interview for a pre-school manager on Friday.

 

I just have a few questions:

 

i believe the pre-school is committee run, does anyone have experience of this and if so can you advise me of how this differs to a privately run nursery?

 

any ideas on what i could expect from the role of pre-school manager? (i have been a nursery manager in the past but i wonder how different a role the pre-school manager is.

 

and any other worrd of wisdom for the interview would be appreciated,

 

thank you

 

Dawn

[Fredbear]

Hi Dawn

If it is a committee run pre-school the type of questions i may ask is to what body do they belong ie PSLA, or do they have their own constitution?. How much input does the committee have in the day to day running of the setting and what support if any are they able to give to the staff team?.

What roles are their responsibility and what would yours be?

What are the main aims and ethos of the setting?.

[do these sit well with your own views and ideas] and are they open to change as time goes by.

Good luck on Friday

[Rea]

Welcome back Dawn

In my experience a nursery manager tends to be more office based than a preschool manager, who will more than likely be included in the ratios. If its committee run its likely to be a chairty too, which means lots of fundraising, parents involvement too if your lucky. The committee are your employer but the involvement they have in the running will depend on tradition (how things have always been done) and the comitment they put in. In our setting the staff take the fee's because I cant be there as often as I would have to be, they also write newsletters because they have more idea of what they want to say and deal with the day to day church hall matters. The committee might also have no idea of the statatory requirements so you might find you're doing things which might really be their job. (I was once asked if I could do the observations at home) A private nursery is usually to make a profit for the owner if at all possible, while acommittee run setting is not for profit, so all the money is put back into the setting. But also in my experience, preschools are lovely relaxed places where children go for play opportunities rather than because the parents need to work, so you can form better relationships with the families too. Apart from that the roles should be pretty much similar, leading a staff team, dealing with parents, playing, attending meetings.

Good luck

[Susan]

Cant answer any questions, Dawn, but can wish you good luck!

[janebe]

Can't add anything to Rea's excellent answer but just wanted to say 'good luck for Friday'.