staffing / deployment

[Guest]

my neice has started a placement at a nursery where she has noticed that sometimes certain children (those who are 19 + months) are in with babies, sometimes in with the older toddlers group ...sometimes changing mid day. Also their key person is not always in the same room as them and there are always different combinations of staff in rooms...staff do not stay with a designated age group.

I think this must be because sometimes they have more of one age group in so they have to adapt due to ratios and shift patterns but surely there is another way to manage this?...but there seems to be a lot of chopping and changing for the children...and staff.

 

or is this usual in day nursery?

[Stargrower]

I guess everywhere works in different ways, but our baby room (under twos) has two full time staff that don't change. They have an hour each for lunch and we have the same person covering this every day. Of course, sometimes we come unstuck and have to have another member of staff in the room, but I think it's really important to have continuity in this age group, so I don't have part-timers for under twos. Some children are much more adaptable than others, but the key person is so vital for little ones, I feel it is the best way for us to work.

[AliceinWonderland]

We only take 3 babies at a time and therefore have 1 key person in this room, we generally have an apprentice helping out most days as well but it's not always possible. Due to shift patterns and staff holidays/training days, there is sometimes a different member of staff covering in the room, we tend to mix the babies with the toddlers at the start and end of the day to help with shifts and also find that this helps the babies become used to the different staff members so that they are not unsettled when someone covers. they also get used to the next room and then are more prepared when they move age groups.

I agree it's good to have continuity for the little ones and we stick to it as much as possible but sometimes it's not possible so we find that the way we do things keeps as much continuity as possible while still keeping them settled around other staff members.