Prompt and regular attendance

[Guest]

Just wondered if managers are speaking to parents about this given that we are supposed to be seen to be encouraging this? How are you intending on showing that you are? Just verbally or more formally? Difficult as att3ndance not mandatory like school.

I have two situations currently. Last term child attended 69% of time with lots of odd days off sick. This term he has been off sick for a week, then his mum and she said she couldnt get him to pre-school. Then he was off yesterday again as he had a late night the night before and she couldn't get him up.

Second one is a child that attends nursery two days and us two mornings. Mum loves nursery but uses us as she wants child to make friends before starting the school we are attached to. She has not yet managed since star5 of term to get her child to come at our start time. Mum says she can't get her out of bed,brings her in pushchair anhour late...our sessions are only three hours. I have explained to mum how important it is to come with the others. She is missingn our circle time and coming in when others are already engrossed. Child is settled once mum leaves and enjoys coming. Mum does not really take us seriously and believes she can drop her off whenever she wants too! Have come to an arrangement whereby she drops the morning session she is struggling with so long as on the other session she comes in on time.

My other issue is that I now have a number of children that only coins session per week as my committee are that desperate for numbers.

Any thoughts? The first child is funded the second not. Thanks.

[Guest]

Sorry should read comes one day per week! We are a pre-school open in the mornings only and linked to the village school.

[louby loo]

In our situation there is no way I am going to dictate to parents about attendance.

 

To be fair we live in a quite affluent area, and many families have more than one holiday a year- we also get quite a few 'dad's got a few days off - as his been working away for the last few weeks so we're going for some fun days out as a family' type thing.

 

I do keep an eye on children that I know would benefit being at pre-school, but find they usually have the best attendance anyway.

 

I guess every area/location is different, and I can fully understand there are going to places that may need to keep a check though.

[sunnyday]

Pre-school opens at 9am and closes at 12 noon, please make every effort to arrive on time, both at the beginning and end of sessions.

 

A 'snippet' from my 'welcome newsletter'

 

(Touch wood) I don't usually have too much of a problem with late arrivals......or irregular attendance - just lucky I guess :1b

[lsp]

Could you suggest working with family support to help with routines in the home,regular bedtimes etc as this could become a bigger problem when the children go into school?

[zigzag]

As pre school is not mandatory, I personally feel that all we can do for attendance is informally talk to parents about how important it is that their child attends and what enjoyment and impact it has on them to attend regularly. If a funded child misses lots of time, the parents may get a gentle reminder that funding could be taken away if not used, this does the trick!! And paying children are reminded that they still have to pay for the place regardless of attendance. I regularly remind parents about collection times!! But not so much about drop off time, we are very rural and lots of parents have to drive and also drop siblings at school.

[diesel10]

Our council have template letters that we can use for non attendance. Ours did say 80%. We always write a reason on the register so that we can cross reference when we are audited.

 

I have updated our general information letter for parents. It says something like ' it is extremely disruptive to the session if you do not arrive on time etc. If you arrive after the door is closed you may have to wait for a member of staff to become available etc

It's worked do far. Well they are better than last year. We found that it was a h & s risk as children were coming in late not being put on the register and not included in the total figure.

[louby loo]

Pre-school opens at 9am and closes at 12 noon, please make every effort to arrive on time, both at the beginning and end of sessions.

 

A 'snippet' from my 'welcome newsletter'

 

(Touch wood) I don't usually have too much of a problem with late arrivals......or irregular attendance - just lucky I guess :1b

That's about all we do too.

 

I will say that ours are good about phoning in when sick/appointments, or telling us they are off on holiday and for how long and we mark into register accordingly. Almost everyone arrives on time, and they often phone when running late.

 

We do mark the register with according to reasons though, and times are added for late children.

x

[finleysmaid]

we live in a nightmare area for traffic...we have always allowed parents to be a bit flexible on their start times as often they drop off in another village before they bring to us....or drop off the younger one at the same time as the village school across the road. . Also lots of out families live I other countries so holidays are common....I have NO idea how we are going to even suggest this let alone get them to adhere to it!

[Guest]

.Thanks for your thoughts etc. So on our registers we have s for sick h hol a appointment and also put in times for late arrival or leaving early. But don't actually write anything else ie actual reasons. so noone sits there and actually works out percentage attendance etc and you all monitor and deal with informally.

 

Will be keeping an eye on new Ofsted reports to see if any comments crop up given that this is in the new inspection framework. Hopefully this would be what they are looking for. In a way we aren't school..not yet anyway!

[Guest]

Don't get me wrong I am a bit flexible but we open after the school so most parents queuing to get in! It's just the second child in my original post is always 30 mins plus late and was over an hour today! Anyone a school nursery? Would they be different?

My line manager is school teacher so will be interested to see what she thinks when I see her.

Edited October 7, 2015 by marley

[catma]

When I was in school in nursery they were included in all the monitoring of the registers, nursery or not. Non attendance was always followed up with first day contact and discussions about absence on return.

What a lot of people don't realise once in school is that the school authorises the absence, regardless of what the parent gives as a reason.

[sunnyday]

.Thanks for your thoughts etc. So on our registers we have s for sick h hol a appointment and also put in times for late arrival or leaving early. But don't actually write anything else ie actual reasons. so noone sits there and actually works out percentage attendance etc and you all monitor and deal with informally.

 

Will be keeping an eye on new Ofsted reports to see if any comments crop up given that this is in the new inspection framework. Hopefully this would be what they are looking for. In a way we aren't school..not yet anyway!

I have an 'absence page' in the back of my register - here I record name of child, date absent, reason, who informed me and when.....

[korkycat]

We have an 'absence book' that a member of staff keeps up-to-date. we get parent to sign and add reason against dates missed.

Register is marked with how we heard reason - we encourage parents to text us if child is ill or absent for any other reason. This was brought up in an audit last year.

korkycat

[zigzag]

Great idea to have an absence page/book much easier way of keeping track rather than having to look back in the register. I like the idea of ensuring you have a reason given and that the parent signs it. Great safeguarding practice as well. Thanks for sharing.