How many key children?

[MarshaD]

During supervision a staff member recently asked me if there was a limit to how many key children she should have, obviously she thinks she has too many. It got me thinking... how many key children do you / your team have?

[hawksladefarmpreschool]

I work 25 hours a week in a pre school and have 13 key children.... 5 other staff and they range from 5 key children to 11 each.... Depending on hours worked...

[Mouseketeer]

My full time senco is on 14 now with 2 more to come and possibly a couple other Sen children from a resigning member of staff (after 10 yrs just had enough of what's expected of them), it's the ones with 6 or 7 who aren't full time that are always moaning.

[Fredbear]

It varies depending by hours worked by staff and taken by our children. Those that work everyday have 9/10, others 5,6 or 7.

I do think you need to look more at the amount expected to be recorded and the way this can be achieved in a timely and orderly fashion.

The whole point of ours is to acquire evidence of children's interests and planning for next steps, not just filling a journal for the sake of it. So quality of than quantity.

Hope this helps.

[lsp]

In the past I always tried to 'share' children out so that everyone had equal amount but taking into account hours staff in with the child and ensuring keyperson staying with families when siblings starting. I realised that as manager I wasn't able to combine keyperson role with admin during sessions, which meant I was doing lots of work at home. I have dropped my number of keychildren. I have 4 at the moment, others have 5 to 7 with more children after Christmas. The SENCO doesn't automatically have children with additional needs but supports keypersons to meet their needs.

 

I agree with Mouseketeer -it's about quality rather than quantity around observations. I feel that I am constantly nagging about this point.

 

The other point about keypersons is every child needs one and you have a limited number of staff so it is what it is!

Edited December 16, 2015 by lsp

[Stargrower]

 

The other point about keypersons is every child needs one and you have a limited number of staff so it is what it is!

 

Yep, that's the long and the short of it!

 

Full time staff in our Pre-school Room can have as many as 15, part-timers less, and our Baby Room and Toddler Room don't have as many as there are fewer children in the room. Having said that, I think one of the Baby Room staff has ten at the moment because we have so many children only doing one or two days a week.

[diesel10]

We have key groups with 2 staff members covering 1/3 of the children. It works well as they are part time and there is always somewhere to cover.

[Guest]

There is only myself and my deputy so we have to half half each. We are a morning only group, with a high number of SEN children and a number of children that only do 1 session per week.....at times it has been 15/16 each..lots to do especially as we have not yet got internet and so its all paper based, sticking and cutting etc. At least we get 2 hrs per week to have a planning/staff/obs and assessments time (still struggle though).

I have been told that we will be able to get wifi and Im hoping my committee will then lets us get tapestry...please tell me that this is a godsend!

[MegaMum]

It is a Godsend..... however it still takes time. Not nearly as much as paper journals though, and as manager, the anaysis section cuts time down immensely.

[Inge]

There is no limit to the number any one person can have...

 

It all usually comes down to the number of children vs staff and hours both of those do.. remembering that often in schools the teacher is for the whole group.. which can be 30..

 

When everyone is part time it can make it harder.. we often had 75 children on role and 5 staff... no way a child would always have a keyworker present..our children had a secondary keyworker allocated , sometimes it was the only way..

[thumperrabbit]

Mine have 8 each at the moment they have gone up to 12 during the summer term

It's tricky as being a morning only setting, you have to try and take on more younger children after Easter otherwise September would see a virtually empty setting!

[MarshaD]

Thanks everyone.

 

We have around 11/12 each and like others, lots doing one or two days only - around 50 sessions per week each. I give an hour a week for observations and we have just moved to a focus child model so that has reduced work load a bit. I just wanted an idea incase I was asking too much but it seems that lots of us are similar.