Key person allocations / key person time

[Guest]

Hi there,

 

I'm just looking into how other nurseries are run.

 

How do you allocate your children to key workers? At the nursery I work in each adult has a mix of ages and plans 1:1 activities with their key children. We are told to plan approx. 1 or 2 activities (based on the child's interest) a month with each of our key children (plus spontaneous observations as and when). Therefore, we do not have 'key person time.'

The head of pre-school plans group activities for the pre-schoolers for their 'group teaching' and the head of toddlers plans group activities for the toddlers for their group teaching. These activities are not written down as observations as a lot of the children that adult is 'teaching' are not their key children.

I hope this is all making sense!

How do other nurseries work?

Thanks in advance.

 

[LKeyteach]

Hi

I allocate key children to staff that attend near enough same days. All my staff are part time so this can be difficult sometimes.

My KP are told that their role is welcome child & parent to get them settled in and to keep the relationship going. They then keep the child's development records Ie the learning journey and plan activities for their needs. They plan one activity a term know this does not sound very much but I believe in taking the child's lead. We seem to be successful in encouraging some grey confident and independent children.

The setting is a preschool we take children 21/2 yrs to 5.

Hope this helps

[Guest youngrisers]

Hi we allocate a key person as the child joins us on their visit day so mum and dads know who they are and then can ask some background questions so the family and the key person feel confident with the knowledge they have gained.

We do home visits which enables us to support our parents through the journey towards more formal schooling and build on the relationships between us. Observations, tracking and record keeping back up the evidence we have gathered enabling us to build on the unique story documents in the setting. We pass this information onto the next setting whether it is a school or other nursery.

seems to work for us and hope this helps

[Foreveryoung]

Key persons as above relate to which days children are in, KW plan 2 next steps on a rolling basis each next step generates an activity plan which breaks down the next step into skills/experiences to support the child in achieving the next step this is usually around 3 or 4 activities which incorporate all children usually. The key worker then carrys out the activity etc as do other staff in general free flo or in small group. It sounds simple in my head but probably not written down lol.

[Stargrower]

Similar to Foreveryoung.

When we carry out adult initiated activities, the adult leading the activity observes all children not just her key children, otherwise only that adult's children would have observations for that activity and good obs might be missed.

[RaceFace03]

Hi,

i allocate the new starters to members of staff, depending on the days they work and try and ensure that staff having round about the same number of children. In the Pre-School unit staff have key group time each week, so they can spend time with their children and work in smaller groups. We offer two settle sessions before a child officially starts nursery. This allows the time for parents and key person to discuss the child's needs.