Guest Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Staff at my pre-school have older children (5 and 7) who will be off school next Thursday due to the strikes. Is it OK for them to come to pre-school with their parents? How do I stand with ratios etc? How would Ofsted feel? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Hi not sure about ratios but would your insurance cover you,We have a toddler group and the insurance only covers pre school children so we cant allow older children to attend as they wouldnt be insured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 we found insurance did cover the children but they had to be counted in ratio when under 8 .. may depend on what your registration says we did allow them in , counted them in ratio if under 8, and we often found many did not come to pre-school on these days anyway when older siblings were off, they tended to keep all at home rather than do a trip for one.. . other alternative we used was for one member of staff to have them at home so the others could work... usually someone was happy to do this... depended on number of children who actually turned up as we would let staff go early if we did not need them.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diesel10 Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Yes, you do need to count all under 8's in the ratio's. 8-12 year olds are fine. But then our insurance PLA states that over 12's should be in connection with a school work experience placement. Although we do have a lot not turn up when their older siblings are not at school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Thanks for all the thoughts. I'm not sure I made my original question clear - it is the staff in the pre-school who have their own children off school next week so I need to know if the staff can bring their own children in and then whether all the things mentioned above need to cover them eg insurance, registration etc - we'll go and look at the paper work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 yes it was clear... the ratio has to include all children in the setting under 8 so children of staff coming in because school has closed have to be included as well... many settings do not like it as they believe it to be unprofessional - I never had an issue with it.. in fact without we would have closed as well, we were a childcare setting and that is just what we were doing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicken Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Hello, yes if staff children are under 8 you have to count them in ratio's. We had a parent complain to Ofsted that staff were bringing in their own children , luckily we had already informed them They were quite happy with it as long as we were in ratios and the staffs children did not impact on the interaction and learning between staff and the preschool children. Children over 8 we have to phone insurance company on the day just to inform them. Hope that helps Chicken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anju Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 I thought we could only have children (staff's or others) up to the 31st august after their 5th birthday - is this because I'm not on the childcare register maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 We have just had exactly the same, and the answer from Ofsted and our Insurance was a most definate NO. No children aged over 5. Debbie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Not even in an emergency??? We will have 5 staff who wil have their children off due to the strike. We have no way of being able to cover that many staff off. I know some are struggling to get childcare. Plus this is the sort of job where you cant exactly take a day off easily. Got a friend who is a teacher and so is her husband (both not striking) and she has no family...she is really panicing. They either have to come to setting or do we close as we cant staff? Glad i dont have to make that decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 surely if you are covered for 2-8 year olds on your registration and these children are covered in a 1-8 ratio (with parental control still being on the premises) you are covered on your insurance automatically because they are members of the public......they could be on a visit so would be covered anyway.....wouldn't they???? otherwise you would have to ban any siblings from attending visit/open days. I think there has to be some common sense applied here surely!...they would have to be signed in for fire precautions and toileting would need to be discussed otherwise these children should be under their parents control(or in our case we discuss that they will be told what to do by me!!! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Thing is we are potentially full if all the nursery childred turn up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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