Guest Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 Hi all, We have been asked by an employee/parent to provide daily information sheets available to all our parents - she suggested including a tick box type form with 'how much my child ateat snack, at lunch' 'nappy changing information - 'wet, soiled' and an 'any other information' box. We are a Pre-school for children aged 2-5. This was brought up at our committee meeting and our Chair (non-parent) and Treasurer (parent) thought this would be a good idea. Both parents attended other nurseries when their children were babies and said this is the done thing. I however, am not so sure. I feel it will take time away from the children. The response was that it can be filled out while the parent is there!We have someone standing at the door to tell parents any relevant information when they pick their child up. If parents have any questions about nappies, we have a log on the wall which can be referred to. I don't really know how to respond to this. I was thinking of asking other parents whether they would find it useful. What do you think? does anyone else have this system for this age group? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louby loo Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) If you have parents that you never see; ie working parents where the child is picked up by minder- then yes, other wise a waste of human resources in my option. I would argue that our unique point is we are able to communicate directly with parents (2-5 sessional pre-school) Funny we the exact same conversation at work yesterday! And a waste of paper!!!!! Edited January 30, 2013 by louby loo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 No I'm afraid it is not something I would expect the staff to do daily.Time spent ticking, filling any forms is precious time taken from interacting and caring for the children. I do understand if it is a nursery,but really cannot see the justification of introducing it for a sessional setting. Parents get daily contact with key persons, regular opportunity to add to and see Learning Journeys. Think that is enough. Do they realise how long it might take.!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I do communication books for my sen children and for those who we share care with another setting....even these are not done every day...we just don't have time. If you ask parents they will probably say yes.....but they don't read it! I know some settings do day books (i think cait does) but you have to assess what's right for your setting. I understand the 'baby' books because babies can't talk and eating/sleeping info is more relevant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I would ask the question what exactly is the benefit to the child in doing this? I do think some sort of home/school book is useful but really only to record the extraordinary rather than the mundane. If a child usually eats snack well, then why bother recording this day after day? Perhaps it might be noteworthy if the child refuses snack that day and staff wonder why that may be. If that child then goes home and says they are not hungry for lunch, together with the information from preschool it might alert a parent quickly to the fact there is something wrong with their child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I have 'Daily Contact Books' which work really well (in my humble) ......... I have several children who are collected by 'others' i.e. not parents - so especially useful there! :1b They don't contain info about snack unless there is a 'problem/worry'......... Sometimes they might simply say 'super morning - super boy'.........sometimes there might be something fascinating to say about an activity or a 'triumph' for a particular child...........sometimes I write something like 'ask Fred what we saw when we were playing outside today' - then I would put the answer in brackets in case Fred had completely forgotten!!! Parents write in them as well - so they might be telling where child has been/visited or that Granny is staying or anything at all really..... They really don't take masses of time and I really like them as do my parents! :1b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 if it can be filled out while parent is there I ask why cannot this be done verbally and save the mountain of trees and recycling this amount of paper would involve.. never mind the cost of the paper and ink to provide such a resource... 20 children a session..=. 20 sheets of paper a session = 400 sheets of paper each week.and if like us you often had up to 40 different children each day with the comings and goings... double that... for those that want it we did have a contact book... for anything we wanted to tell parents but not the daily stuff like ate snack unless it was a change to the usual.. even nappy changes were only recorded for those parents that requested it... but in return we also wanted a two way dialogue.. so they also had to do the same..if they felt they needed this information written down and not passed verbally then we suggested for continued care maybe we should have some from them too... most did not have home books, it was usually those we did not see or went to different carers... I can see why in nursery the youngest may have them, but for this age felt it was too much paper and cost to do it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrison Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 We only do it for the under 2's. It works for us as we have diff staff leaving at diff times of day and keypersons dont always get to see the parents. I would refuse to do it for older children as it would mean we spent half the day writing! We will do it however for a special needs child if required Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Hi all We have sheets for children that stay all day and travel books that go between more than one setting. We record what they have eaten for snack or lunch. We have slips to put in their bags if they have been changed. It would take too long filling in details for all the children and now we use Tapestry that takes care of showing them what they have been doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Thanks all for your replies - we did try home/school books a couple of years ago - parents forgot to bring them back in! We talk to all our parent when they come in, especially if child hasn't been themself - not eaten snack, fallen aslee etc., and very rarely do we have anyone other than mum or dad pick them up, if not them then it's usually a family member! I'm gonna have to sort this - had a mare of a day already! Just come back from maternity and OFSTED are due - oh dear! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoolahoney Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I have a tick form that takes literally a minute to do, do them as and when for the children but at least once a week so parents can see how they are doing. Can be handed to the parent or put in home school book. I'll attach it for you. We had the same dilemma and this was a compromise under the understanding it would not be every session for every child. Feel free to use and just tick/highlight bits that are relevant.Child Update.doc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I like that, especially first part....could maybe fill in for staff too lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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