Nursery Admissions

[Guest George85]

Hi guys!

 

Not sure if this is actually the right place to post this but im looking to find out what your admissions policies are like.

 

So...I'm the teacher in a Nursery class that is part of a primary school. At the moment, we take on N1's and N2's.

 

N1's attend the nursery part ime this year then nursery full time next year where they become N2's. N2's are previous N1's who now attend full time and will move to reception next year.

 

My 31 N2's attend full time from september (after a 3 week staggered intake) then my 16 N1's that attend part time (8 monday tuesday and half of wednesday 8 half wednesday, thursday friday) however these children are taken in throughout the year as and when they turn 3, meaning we have an intake of them in october and in january and in march etc. I feel this can be dusruptive for the children already attending and are very settled and i find it hard to plan and assess, taking into account children who have just started and those that have been here for a lot longer. This also means i am continually baselining and continually haveing to update my baseline data.

 

Sorry if this makes no sense at all, its just i havent heard from any other school nursery that works this way and personally i dont think it is working very well.

 

I will add we are create a very welcoming relaxed atmosphere for the children and they do often settle very quickly, i just dont feel this is the most effective way of managing admissions.

 

Any advice, input or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you

[Lyanne]

I'm in a PVI preschool, and we take children in as they turn 2 or move into the area or the Health Visitor insists they put their child in a setting before school... We had 2 start last week, though I'm trying to convince parents now that waiting till next term is a better idea!

 

The school we're next door to only has part time nursery children, mornings or afternoons, and the children don't go full time till they're in reception, though I know of other schools in my town that offer 2 1/2 day nursery placements.

 

Places are now allocated to the nursery classes by County, which is quite new as it used to be on a school by school basis (so if a parent had applied to 3 local nursery classes, they could have been offered all 3!). The other thing that's new for us, is the full time Reception in September, which has meant most of the nursery children being in there for one year before going into Reception, and not many spaces being available over the year for children turning 3.

 

Sorry, that's not really very helpful for you, is it?

 

I will say that this is the first year we've staggered the new intake in September - we came back on a Thursday with only the old children, and bought the new children in 1 or 2 at a time over the next week, so we could give the new child and parents/carers full attention. We will do that again as it was so good for the children and parents and us. We do have more staff in than I guess you have, as we aim for 1:4 across the age range to support our children with English as their Second or other language.

[Guest George85]

yeah I find staggered intake is good we do it over a period of 3 weeks. Then all the children get settled, then the N1's start coming in dribs and drabs. Just really curious as to what others are doing. : )

 

I also tend to agree with half a day as opposed to 2 1/2 days.

 

Thanks for your reply.

[Scarlettangel]

Ok, where to start?

 

Reception have one intake in September, no phased start, full time from day one.

 

I am in nursery.

Maintained sessions in the morning.

Private sessions in the afternoon.

Children have 15 hours free per week taken to suit them.

Some do mornings some do afternoons others do two and a half days or three full days or whatever they need ( they just pay for hours over the 15 they are entitled to )

We stagger the start occasionally in September if we have a lot of new children starting.

We have children entering nursery in September January and April.

 

If a child was full time their parent would be paying for hours over the 15 they are entitled to. The children are entitled to this funding the term after they turn 3.

 

[Guest George85]

Thanks Scarlettangel for your reply. Can i ask, how many children do you have on roll? In at one time?

[Scarlettangel]

George85 we can have 26 children in the morning maintained sessions with one teacher and one level 3 (the level 3 is me but I am actually an EYP!!)

 

In the afternoon I can have 24 children with 3 staff. (Although I can alter that ratio for me to 1:13 now I am an EYP!!)

 

If we have to stagger the entry we have any children returing to nursery doing every day, and the new ones split to do every other day.

Also the nursery usually only opens for an hour the first bit of the week when we head back (ie thurs and fri) and an hour the whole of the next week

 

After that, all "old" nursery children return to usual hours and the new ones build up their sessions according to how they are settling.

 

The intake in January and Easter is usually just a few so they start together and we build their sessions according to how they are settling.

 

Hope this helps