Guest Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Hi Would people share with me how they mark their registers please. We are a large DN and need to tighten our register situation ie. parents signing their children in and out with times. Does anyone operate their system like this and if so how is it managed in a large busy nursery? Would be really interested in the different ways registers are marked. Hopes this makes sense! Thanks Gem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I'm not a large nursery, a small preschool, but Ofsted required that we mark time in and time out of each child and adult. On a different sheet we write the total ie: 24 children - 4 adults. This is done by a member of staff. Obviously in a large nursery there may be staffing issues here, different rooms etc. I have heard of computor systems that can monitor who is in or out the building for larger scale operators but not sure what the company was. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Registers, registers I think that this problem will only get worse if and when the new 10 year strategy comes on board with parents being able to pick their times of when they come in and out to suit them. What sort of register do you use - most of those on the market are a complete waste of time as they do not seem to have enough space to fit what we need to in. We have designed our own Registers should include the time in and out of each child and parents should sign their time in/out. Think about what other information you may need to capture - persons other than those picking up who have been given authorisation to do so, e.g. any comments a parent wants to make. Our register now is drawn up on a page a week (well actually two as we cannot fit all the children in on one page) so we can capture all the information - its knocked out on a spreadsheet, those days that children are not in are highlighted in a different colour although this can be confusing if parents keep changing their days or adding to them on an ad hoc basis as they do in DN's. Children with allergies are highlighted in a different colour just as another check. We then use the basis of these sheets for the design of activity sheets to capture which children have done what. Takes a bit of time to set up but once its done it very easy to use. You could draw up one and do a page a day and file this away. This would get left out for the parents to sign - once they get in the habit they soon remember to do it. For instance, emergency contact numbers can be amended here , if these happen to be different for a particular day e.g. second named contct away on holiday. Anything you like that you feel you need. Having had an emergency where we needed to call an ambulance I think this information needs to be captured on a daily basis, parents often forget to give us their updated contact numbers and emergency contact numbers and this information is vital as I learnt to my cost. Parents may still forget, but at least we are trying to focus the importance of them doing this. Nikki As Peggy said large DN's often capture all this information on a computer but if you don't have one you will have to design a form of your own - I have tried about 6 different registers now - they are expensive and they don't have enough space for what I need to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 i have 2 groups running alongside one another in a big hall. and my 2 leaders use to put different things in their registers for holidays or sick or at school, and we were asked by the Ofsted inspectors once how did the staff know whether the children were in or not. one put a circle the other put a tick. pretty obvious we thought but we now all have to put the same as we are obviously not intelligent enough to know that a tick or a circle could mean the same. we have a self registration as well as the staff take the register. we also put the time every child if they come in late or early Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 yes we designed our won on Excel so much easier than the bought ones. you can put what info you like on it then good luck designing one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 attached example in/out register and headcount sheet. My normal register is done on excel with normal attendence days showed in very light grey. ( yes they do swap & change sessions though) I print off enough sheets for half a term of both register and headcount sheet ( both blank), these I bind with Headcount sheet on left hand page and register on the right. EXAMPLE_IN_OUT_REGISTER.doc HEADCOUNT_REGISTER.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Thanks Peggy, Steph and Nicola for your help and thoughts and examples. Our problem seems to be that we are using 'First Steps' computer software and it doesn't produce the type of register we want - or it does and I can't work out how to do it! We recognise that we need to put in and out times on and also signatures but can I work it out!... Have spoken to them and they are working on it after an hour and a quarter on the phone to them! In the end we suggested they ring other nurseries that they have provided the software to and see how they do it! Our inspection team couldn't understand our way of marking the register either 'o' for absent and /\ for present AM/PM but of course no times in out etc. (This was done on Excel but it now needs to link with First Steps). They couldn't understand it so they couldn't understand how our staff understand it! I will not let it or them beat me! Gem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 19, 2005 Share Posted October 19, 2005 Hi all, I agree that all the registers on the market are useless. We have a separate sign in and out book for the children but didn't know we had to have have in and out for the adults. I personally have no idea how to use excell but have tried to fiddle around to make my own register. Will be alot easier. Net x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy P Posted October 19, 2005 Share Posted October 19, 2005 Hi We use first steps and their register is fine for us. It is shown a week to a page with ample space to write in and out times. Also includes lots of other details such as dob's, mealtime numbers, staff names and quals etc. If you need any help with this please let me know. I would just like to add we also use pla registers as storing these bits of paper is very space consuming and also as the register follows the chn around all day it can be quite grubby at the end of the week. So on a weekly basis a member of staff compiles all info into pla reg and bins the first steps paper. Time consuming... but necessary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 19, 2005 Share Posted October 19, 2005 Hi Lucy, I found PLA register didn't have enough room for the amount of children and the colomns were so small couldn't fill in and then read. Haven't heard of the first steps one though. Is that from the first steps catalogue or something different Net x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy P Posted October 19, 2005 Share Posted October 19, 2005 First Steps is nursery management software and has a register facility within. We use 4 pla registers within the nursery (babies, one year olds, two year olds and preschool) and i think we are working from 2 pages at a time. Yes the boxes are so small but i do find it easier to store 4 of these registers rather than about 500 pieces of A4 paper each year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 20, 2005 Share Posted October 20, 2005 I have devised my own register, as I couldn't find one that i was happy with I have attached an example of the one we use. The colours denote the age of the child and I have two seperate boxes at the bottom that let me see at a glance how many under 3s we have in one session. It is still being modified as I think of more things to add example_register.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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