Waiting Lists

[Stargrower]

What format do you use for your waiting lists? We are a day nursery with three rooms so have to manage children moving from room to room as well as new children starting and leavers.

Do you use software, spreadsheets, word documents, pen and paper?

I'm trying to find a way to make it easy and clear! :huh:

[Guest]

Hi we use pen to paper on a one in one out basis, this has worked well as our occupancy has been at 94%.

[Rea]

Pen and paper and a book that's been on the go since around 1994. I know because my youngest son's name's in it. :1b

Edited November 28, 2012 by Rea

[sunnyday]

Hi Beehive

 

Pen and paper for me too.........can I just say that managing the waiting list is the only job that I truly 'hate' we are in the extremely lucky position of always being over-subscribed - but that means that I am always 'upsetting' those people that I can't 'fit in'

[meridian]

we have ours in a folder, in date order, but have to then look through them to see who is available to start, can be a bit of a pain (and time consuming) but difficult to organise and has worked for us (up to now), but will be looking on here to see if someone has a better system

[Rea]

Our waiting list is administered by time on list. As soon as a child gets close to 2 and a half they are contacted and told when they can start, presuming they still want the place. Some might arrive after that age but the one's on the waiting list take precedence. We keep an eye on the ratios so not too many 2.5s at once. Its a bit of a juggling act but works :1b

[Cait]

I do mine in excel and it's on the same page a the whole year overview. This allows me to see vacancies as they occur,as ratios change throughout the year as children become 3. Children who won't be old enough to start this academic year are highlighted in a different colour, by year group, so it's easy to see who is due to start.

[jennyjenkinz]

I'd be interested to see that if you don't mind sharing Cait x

[Guest]

pen and paper, but o it is a headache especially as we are over subscribed and only tend to have the one intake now in sept. as thas when the schools fill their places

 

all ways upsetting people and tryng to explain to irrate parents who do nothing to help their case when they are shouting at me!!

[Panders]

So many times I have parents who are incredulous that we have no spaces left until the following September - and the sad thing is they tend to come from ethnic backgrounds, where I can only assume in their mother countries places at nurseries are easy to come by and the children start whenever they wish them to.

[finleysmaid]

we use a similar system to cait and have done now for the last couple of years since expanding. My administrator does the admissions now, used to be the secretary when we were committee based. (sorry cant upload a copy as my admin office elsewhere.......and in ref to another thread, no i dont have permission!!!)

Edited November 29, 2012 by finleysmaid

[Stargrower]

Thank you everyone for your replies. It sounds like most of you are pre-schools so its one child in and one child out. Is anyone in a nursery with three rooms? We are oversubscribed too, so finding it hard to juggle the movement between starters, leavers (our schools only do a September intake too) and movers between rooms. I don't have an administrator so really trying to streamline it and make it easy, but not sure if that's realistic tbh!!

[Guest]

Despite the problems of upsetting parents i actually love the one intake, so most of our children are with us for 2 years.

 

some wait for a vacancy the following year so are almost or are 3 when they start.