new committee ,new wants

[blondie]

hi, we have a new committee and they have issued us with a long list of wants - just wondered whether anyone here has

 

provided each parent with a leaflet about the eyfs - we have approx 120 parents - we have downloaded and made available copies of the parents guide to the new eyfs

 

made it compulsory for parent evenings - can they do that?

 

any thoughts welcome

x

[finleysmaid]

have they looked at the financial implications of this? how much does it cost per copy of the eyfs (do all parents want it) could you give the link to the info online?

Parents evenings...humm well if they work for your setting then great but they will have to pay staff for them (unless your contract says not!) so can they afford to add this to the wage bill?

 

Working with committees is difficult and they all have their own characteristics! This lot seem to have come in all guns blazing....it is your job to help them make sensible and financially viable decisions....they probably haven't even thought of the costs or looked at the finances of the company yet!! maybe a talk from you on how little money you have is needed!

[louby loo]

I thought we were supposed to give parents info on the revised EYFS anyway?

 

We did it via email, up to them whether they read, print or delete! Anyone without access to email was offered a paper-copy - no takers!!!

 

xx

[Inge]

Compulsory for who at parents evenings.. staff.. look at your contracts depends on what they say really... don't think they can make it compulsory unless your contract says so.. and if not you could compromise and say that you will but if paid overtime.. (We tried them and when not one parent turned up but we had 3 staff.. committee decided it was too costly... !) They cannot mean compulsory for parents which is how I first read it..

 

We did provide leaflets for eyfs , but did a lot by email... and a few available for parents to take if they wished... cost implications stopped any more.. but we also had out own website with it all on so would point parents that way too...

 

Working with different committees can be hard.. they really all want to do their best, but do not always understand the implications or legal requirements and how these impact so much on what is needed. and most have never been managers so do not have the skills of how to deal with people and things they really often have no idea about.

[Mouseketeer]

We don't have parent evening, but hold a couple of stay and plays a half term after we close, all staff have previously attended but now considering opening it to all as now, but state which key persons will be there as paying all staff an extra hour for the few that show up is crazy.

[DebbieW]

We make stay and play compulsory for parents. We have a diary that parents can choose which sessions they want to join us. The rule is no more than 2 parents a session and it must be a day that their child's key person attends. We give them their child's learning journey during the session and they find out about their child and how we operate during this time. They can choose how long they stay and usually end up staying all morning and being another pair of hands. Working parents can choose a session and usually choose a day far enough in advance that gives them time off to participate.

 

We do this because parent evenings were so poorly attended, and they were costly. We e mailed the EYFS document. Again...I held an information evening...prepared a power point presentation and 8 parents out of 50 attended. We always give the option of a paper copy but no one has asked so far.

[blondie]

we are not allowed to access our website - that is for the committee to access only!

will look at e-mailing parents the eyfs - not sure how long this will take as we have only just been allowed to have internet access onsite - before everything had to be done at home on home computers!

like the idea of stay and play - will put that idea forward - but at present our parent rota is never written on so not sure how successful it will be

thanks and any other ideas welcome

[Panders]

I e mailed my parents during the summer hols with the new eyfs, up to them whether or not to read, I have a couple of copies at work too, to refer to or give parents who don't have e mail access.

 

What may take the time is gathering up the e mail addresses unless you already have them on registration forms like I do, you can do a whole list in one go and send it off, wont take too long.

[Inge]

we are not allowed to access our website - that is for the committee to access only!

will look at e-mailing parents the eyfs - not sure how long this will take as we have only just been allowed to have internet access onsite - before everything had to be done at home on home computers!

like the idea of stay and play - will put that idea forward - but at present our parent rota is never written on so not sure how successful it will be

thanks and any other ideas welcome

 

Sounds like a committee job then

 

they will have to give the eyfs info on the web site

and also email the parents with the info.. give them the info and let them do some of the work they are asking you to do..

 

I do think you really cannot insist on parents staying and doing a stay and play or anything else when they are funded..are they not supposed to have access with no restrictions or additional payments.if not funded may be a different matter..

[Rea]

our staff hold short information sharing sessions, each parent gets 10 mins with their child key person. This is done during a normal session so parents don't have to find baby sitters, staff don't have to find sitters and we don't have to pay them extra. For those who work we send a report home.

We don't print everything off due to the cost, but I would suggest to your committee its a admin role and pass it to them to do, after I'd pointed out the cost.

Interesting they won't let you access the web site, what do they think you'll do to it?!

[blondie]

who knows rea - it is a very basic site as we have not been allowed to have any input - we want to add policies,procedures, newsletters,information about the setting etc but it all has to go via the committee for them to put on .

obviously we wouldnt put anything detrimental to the setting as it would cost our jobs and more importantly ruin the reputation of the setting so personally i dont see the problem with us doing it

Edited October 28, 2012 by blondie

[Mouseketeer]

Maybe they need to look at a few other sites to see what info they have on them...seems crazy you have to get them to update it...who set it up in the first place, someone else set ours up so I do have to email to them to put on which is annoying enough. But I email what I want changed/added...doesn't go through committee.....it's just taken them 4 months and a change of committee to agree one policy !

[lashes2508]

how awful for you blondie that you have a committee that are not working with you but working against you ! we are fortunate to have a very supportive committee although the roles do need defining but they are fairly new and also happy and trust me and the team to do things right. our chair set up our website and will happily allow us all to view and if it needs adding he is doing that as a help not a hinder. I think your committee needs to recognise their role and realise that you need to support each other to work effectively. I know historically there were some divisions within our setting between staff and committee but this is something we don't want happening as we are all working towards the same goal - providing the best we can with what we can for the benfit of our children and the community. Good Luck and if you are a member of PLA maybe your development officer could have a word ......