It's Friday!

[Panders]

I'm getting ready for granddaughters sleepover - summoning the strength for it all😘.  All should be calm by Sunday evening😃

 

😅|Phew none of us went missing on 101

Edited August 28, 2020 by Panders

[sunnyday]

I have just had 'one of those phone calls' with a parent - she is lovely, but I'm now more confused about what's happening than before the call 🤦‍♀️🤣

[blondie]

3 hours ago, louby loo said:

I've ventured out again today, and everything seems pretty normal out now (apart from the masks)  which actually makes me feel more comfortable about going back to work.

Well done you - I think once you actually do it the fear goes. I was really worried before returning in June but once I had done it I felt much better and actually realised that I could do it (if that makes sense). I do think it's all about looking after yourself , being prepared with mask, gel and gloves (if needed) and being aware of others when you are out and about as some people aren't quite so prepared. It is going to be with us for a long time yet so we have to adapt but always keep ourselves safe. xx

[louby loo]

11 minutes ago, blondie said:

Well done you - I think once you actually do it the fear goes. I was really worried before returning in June but once I had done it I felt much better and actually realised that I could do it (if that makes sense). I do think it's all about looking after yourself , being prepared with mask, gel and gloves (if needed) and being aware of others when you are out and about as some people aren't quite so prepared. It is going to be with us for a long time yet so we have to adapt but always keep ourselves safe. xx

Very true.

And I'm glad I went out- we went to Halfords to look at buggies for my daughter, long story short after much fun and giggles from the staff and us we ended up getting a £160 one for £45..... less 10% AA membership discount.   🤣

[louby loo]

1 hour ago, sunnyday said:

I have just had 'one of those phone calls' with a parent - she is lovely, but I'm now more confused about what's happening than before the call 🤦‍♀️🤣

I'm in the middle of one those conventions via email ............. like you I'm really not sure what's happing now. I 'think' we have deferred the place until Jan, 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤣

[sunnyday]

43 minutes ago, louby loo said:

Very true.

And I'm glad I went out- we went to Halfords to look at buggies for my daughter, long story short after much fun and giggles from the staff and us we ended up getting a £160 one for £45..... less 10% AA membership discount.   🤣

RESULT!!!

[sunnyday]

Does anyone else have 'worry' dreams?

Last night I dreamt that I was in London giving a speech in some huge auditorium (as if), speech went well but I couldn't find the station to get a train home (also at some point I was on a rollercoaster🤷‍♀️) when I eventually found the station there were no information boards to tell me which platform I should be on.....

Woke from that dream, relieved to find I was indeed at home, fell asleep again and dreamt that I was at a niece's wedding, outside the church their was a buzzer system and guests were required to use this to vote on how they thought the ceremony had gone......my niece walked behind me just as I voted it 'down'

This nighttime activity is exhausting - and I do worry that I am well and truly cracking up!

[blondie]

They were almost giving it away 😄

[louby loo]

2 hours ago, sunnyday said:

Does anyone else have 'worry' dreams?

Last night I dreamt that I was in London giving a speech in some huge auditorium (as if), speech went well but I couldn't find the station to get a train home (also at some point I was on a rollercoaster🤷‍♀️) when I eventually found the station there were no information boards to tell me which platform I should be on.....

Woke from that dream, relieved to find I was indeed at home, fell asleep again and dreamt that I was at a niece's wedding, outside the church their was a buzzer system and guests were required to use this to vote on how they thought the ceremony had gone......my niece walked behind me just as I voted it 'down'

This nighttime activity is exhausting - and I do worry that I am well and truly cracking up!

 

Not sure what going on inside your head then!😳    Do you have any weddings coming up? 

I have weird dreams sometimes. Usually pretty boring like going shopping in Tesco etc - then I'm  not sure sure what shopping I actually have in the cupboard whether or not I did buy stuff or just dreamt I have.

I once dreamt often came- but the children arms kept falling off and we had to keep 'clicking' back in (like a doll) 

[sunnyday]

18 minutes ago, louby loo said:

 

Not sure what going on inside your head then!😳    Do you have any weddings coming up? 

I have weird dreams sometimes. Usually pretty boring like going shopping in Tesco etc - then I'm  not sure sure what shopping I actually have in the cupboard whether or not I did buy stuff or just dreamt I have.

I once dreamt often came- but the children arms kept falling off and we had to keep 'clicking' back in (like a doll) 

Yes, niece is getting married this year - fairly sure that there won't be any form of voting going on though 

The 'not being able to find a way home' is recurring - but the detail + the whole rollercoaster thing was horrible

[louby loo]

23 minutes ago, sunnyday said:

The 'not being able to find a way home' is recurring - but the detail + the whole rollercoaster thing was horrible

I've had a fair few where you wake up so relieved it's not real.... but it takes quite a little while to actually 'get over' the dream as it seemed so real 😢 But I do seem to forget them very quickly, and usual by morning I can't remember the details,  just that it was awful at the time.

Rollercoaster - I guess that's what we're all facing in the next week or so ?   

[Panders]

Before a return to work after summer hols I would dream that I had lost at least one or two of the children in the garden, or they had escaped etc.  Thank goodness once we had got back to work they stopped.  I'm sure yours will too Sunnyday, I'd be totally surprised or worried if you weren't having them - not long to go now

[sunnyday]

Thank you Panders that is quite reassuring

Hard to explain how awful the first dream was, wandering around London in the dark in a complete state of panic and confusion

We are - staff in Thursday and Friday this week, children in Monday 7th

[zigzag]

I think it’s quite normal in the circumstances to be having these kind of dreams.  Let’s hope once we have all been back for a week or two that we are feeling more confident and reassured that things are going ok.  I also have those dreams where I am still working, wake up exhausted! My son is a chef and so busy at the moment and he spent the whole night sleep cooking the other night!

[sunnyday]

Well it's Friday again!

Hope everybody is well and that if you have been at work this week it has gone swimmingly - my first day back on Monday!

Have a lovely weekend y'all

[louby loo]

Well I'm already shattered... and we aren't even open for the children until Monday!  

We have had three days of sorting, cleaning and planning, and  still not 100% sure how it all going to work Monday- but at least the whole team are thinking the same way now  

[sunnyday]

37 minutes ago, louby loo said:

- but at least the whole team are thinking the same way now  

I feel the same way louby, after months of sharing ideas via email we have been together over the last two mornings, so much better

[zigzag]

Well went in yesterday to finish off and the hoover blew up on me! Hope it’s not an omen😱

[sunnyday]

3 hours ago, zigzag said:

Well went in yesterday to finish off and the hoover blew up on me! Hope it’s not an omen😱

Oh no!

[lynned55]

I've had a really couple of horrible dreams lately- one of them I dreamt we (all the staff ) 'forgot' that parents couldn't come into preschool and that we had to socially distance. I let everyone in and all the parents were hugging and kissing us. Then my deputy (except it wasnt my deputy) remembered, told me and I totally lost it with the staff! Woke up fuming with them for not telling me. 😆

[zigzag]

22 hours ago, lynned55 said:

I've had a really couple of horrible dreams lately- one of them I dreamt we (all the staff ) 'forgot' that parents couldn't come into preschool and that we had to socially distance. I let everyone in and all the parents were hugging and kissing us. Then my deputy (except it wasnt my deputy) remembered, told me and I totally lost it with the staff! Woke up fuming with them for not telling me. 😆

Welcome to the funny dreams club!

[louby loo]

Friday again.      I'm back to having Fridays of again 😁

Our first proper week back with children, and I have to say it went so well.   (hope they're having a good day today too 😳)

The children settled back unbelievably well, and as we only had our returners in this week -with no new children it felt like we had never been away, the children seemed genuinly happy to see all the staff again.

We had our first C-19 query on Wednesday when a sibling was sent home from school, and Thursday with a staff members child  who was almost not allowed in school. Both sorted and no issues thankfully.  However I do feel it's going to be a long winter could and flu season!

[sunnyday]

I can't let a Friday pass without comment - but don't want to be too negative on this lovely thread....

It has been really difficult - I did comment on another thread and explain that we are not in our usual room within our building, so we are now effectively 'pack-away', I am not enjoying that at all

I know that we haven't provided the best experience for our children and I find that hard to take as I am so proud of our lovely group

We have had 'tears on entry' from three children - we just don't have this usually, i think because we have such a good settling in procedure, which has been impossible

To add insult to injury - quite literally - we are a very small staff team of three and one of my colleagues has broken her arm in two places today (not at pre-school) so we are now down to just two, she is saying "I will be in on Monday", I have told her to see how she feels over the weekend

I am beginning to think that I have made a dreadful mistake in re-opening at all

Feeling miserable and despondent today

Will have to give myself a good talking to 

Happy weekend all 

[louby loo]

15 minutes ago, sunnyday said:

I can't let a Friday pass without comment - but don't want to be too negative on this lovely thread....

It has been really difficult - I did comment on another thread and explain that we are not in our usual room within our building, so we are now effectively 'pack-away', I am not enjoying that at all

I know that we haven't provided the best experience for our children and I find that hard to take as I am so proud of our lovely group

We have had 'tears on entry' from three children - we just don't have this usually, i think because we have such a good settling in procedure, which has been impossible

To add insult to injury - quite literally - we are a very small staff team of three and one of my colleagues has broken her arm in two places today (not at pre-school) so we are now down to just two, she is saying "I will be in on Monday", I have told her to see how she feels over the weekend

I am beginning to think that I have made a dreadful mistake in re-opening at all

Feeling miserable and despondent today

Will have to give myself a good talking to 

Happy weekend all 

Oh my, that is not a good start 😢

Pack-away:  not the best but look at it as free gym membership.  We have a lot less out now, but the children seem happy enough with less resources.  Technically we can leave our stuff out until the scouts start up again, however- I have not told the staff this as I think it will become difficult when we need to again.  We 'semi-packaway' which is a treat for us.

We've had no new starters yet, so we are certainly expecting more tears as we move forward, I am glad we did this week with just the older ones. Although that said we do this every year anyway.

Does being a staff member down have a huge impact on staffing for you?  Obviously very hard work with just two setting up/down each day, can you compromise about leaving some bits out- even if it's just for a few weeks until you get into routine?

I'd already decided to step back this year, and I have a staff member that would like extra hours which is good - but we'll still be balancing on a knife edge if staff need to isolate etc.

I think it's going to be a difficult year for a lot of us really.  

Take care of yourself,  and treat yourself kindly this weekend. 💐🍷🍫  xxx

[zigzag]

3 hours ago, sunnyday said:

I can't let a Friday pass without comment - but don't want to be too negative on this lovely thread....

It has been really difficult - I did comment on another thread and explain that we are not in our usual room within our building, so we are now effectively 'pack-away', I am not enjoying that at all

I know that we haven't provided the best experience for our children and I find that hard to take as I am so proud of our lovely group

We have had 'tears on entry' from three children - we just don't have this usually, i think because we have such a good settling in procedure, which has been impossible

To add insult to injury - quite literally - we are a very small staff team of three and one of my colleagues has broken her arm in two places today (not at pre-school) so we are now down to just two, she is saying "I will be in on Monday", I have told her to see how she feels over the weekend

I am beginning to think that I have made a dreadful mistake in re-opening at all

Feeling miserable and despondent today

Will have to give myself a good talking to 

Happy weekend all 

Ahh Sunnyday so sorry to read this, what a difficult start back for you. I did pack a way years ago and it’s so much harder, I have nothing but respect for settings that do this on a daily basis.  Do you know how long you will have to work like this?

Your poor staff member, hope she has a quick recovery. It has such a knock on effect when you are missing a staff member, especially at the moment for you with all the additional cleaning and packing away.

i am sure your new children will settle, but it’s upsetting whilst this happens isn’t it.

Don’t be so hard on yourself, show yourself some kindness , try and take a break this weekend so you are ready for whatever next weeks brings.

Take care lovely lady xx

[Froglet]

Louby I’m glad your week has gone well. We are having regular phone calls with ‘my child/their sibling has a sniffle/runny nose can I bring them in? It’s made difficult particularly because different schools have different actions according to their risk assessments which makes things confusing.

Sunnyday, I’m sorry you had such a tough week but be kind to yourself. I know you will be doing a brilliant job in difficult circumstances. While I’ve never been packaway as such my last school was very small which meant that dinners were served and eaten in my room. I had to completely clear away every lunch and because it was rarely clean before the children came back in for afternoon school couldn’t set up propeller. It was really difficult and I feel for you but also give yourselves a break. I’ve come to see over the last few months in particular that children are usually just as happy with less than we would like to give them and the quality of the relationships you build with them will be what is really important.

 Non-settlers are tough on everybody (I can’t remember what age you start from) but they will get there with some blips ( I have been lucky enough to have just one wobbly one in the mornings) then yesterday being Friday of the first full week I had half a dozen as they were tired.

There are a huge amount of adjustments to make and it takes time to get there and as someone said the other day many people are expecting us to be ‘normal) again and we just can’t. Our classrooms are not arranged in a way we like, we are all doing extra cleaning each day but the length of our school day is back to normal and the expectations for marking, provision and display plus all the other roles we have are still there.

Be kind to yourself. Step away from it a little this weekend, I am sure solutions to some of your niggles will come to you but also don’t feel bad for feeling despondent. You are making a huge adjustment it the nature of our job means that we have little time to reflect on it during the day and many people expect us to be permanently smiley! It will take time!

Apologies for the epic reply but I really don’t want you to feel bad.

[finleysmaid]

18 hours ago, sunnyday said:

I can't let a Friday pass without comment - but don't want to be too negative on this lovely thread....

It has been really difficult - I did comment on another thread and explain that we are not in our usual room within our building, so we are now effectively 'pack-away', I am not enjoying that at all

I know that we haven't provided the best experience for our children and I find that hard to take as I am so proud of our lovely group

We have had 'tears on entry' from three children - we just don't have this usually, i think because we have such a good settling in procedure, which has been impossible

To add insult to injury - quite literally - we are a very small staff team of three and one of my colleagues has broken her arm in two places today (not at pre-school) so we are now down to just two, she is saying "I will be in on Monday", I have told her to see how she feels over the weekend

I am beginning to think that I have made a dreadful mistake in re-opening at all

Feeling miserable and despondent today

Will have to give myself a good talking to 

Happy weekend all 

I'm thinking of you. what a rotten start to a strange year.Packaway is hard but when you don't have the equipment set up like that even worse. are you having to completely remove it from one room to another? just wondering if the restrictions coming in on monday will help you? 

Lots of children have had such limited experiences during the lockdown that i suspect we will all have more issues than normal. They haven't been to playgroups swimming lessons or even playgrounds for months (at least a fifth of their little lives!) they haven't left their parents sides even to go to their grandparents and now we are execting them to leave that comfort and jump in to an alien world that they have probably never visited. I don't think any of us are going to have a smooth ride with this.

No one should be judging anyone at the moment ...especially ourselves. We should all pat ourselves on the back that we've got through this week/month/year so far!!!

[sunnyday]

Thank you so much my lovely 'Friday friends' x

I am my own worst enemy I am a 'perfectionist', I have been completely thrown by this 'disastrous' start, but I need to concentrate more on what went well and a whole lot less on what went wrong!

One of the 'criers' is a returner - yesterday she was screaming "mummy, mummy" at the fire door, I soon became aware of an audience in the car park, horrible, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her she has had super mornings, it is just this parting, it really is a 'temper' thing and I know this will now develop into a 'this is what I do when mummy leaves' situation.....the other two are just 'gentle protesters' and I completely understand how alien this situation is to them

Then we have 'little miss worried' - she has got it into her head that there is an air hand dryer in the loo - there isn't and I have had mummy take her in to show her - long story, short she had two 'poo accidents' yesterday - all very difficult to deal with especially as I was a staff member down - called mum back to deal with the first accident, second we had more success with - really hope that she now knows the toilet is not a place to be scared of, again I am worried that this will just become a habit, a 'I can't go into the toilet, I am too scared' situation - hopefully I am just catastrophising  here!

Anyway, I have been greatly reassured by your kind comments, have had a good nights sleep didn't wake until 8am which is unheard of for me! Will now, as you have suggested try and 'step away' from this and enjoy the weekend - the sun is shining here which always helps

Forgot to say - I have spoken with my staff member with the broken arm - she is doing as well as can be expected, she reports "not too painful and that she is resting"

Oh my actual goodness 😀 also forgot to say - reason for different room/pack-away - our lovely room is on the first floor of our building - can't really ventilate properly - have moved to the huge sports hall, very high ceilings + can open doors and windows, having to lug everything up and down the stairs (I'm far too old for that)

Edited September 12, 2020 by sunnyday

[louby loo]

Can the nervous child do shorter sessions and build up?  This is how we've handled our screamer, and it's woking well- as he goes home just as he's really getting 

 

Pack-away problems-

We have actually put so much less out now, and we are also trying to go with things that can be dumped and the end of the session -like anything that can be recycled, lots of boxes and paper bags for 'shopping'  etc!   Our best new resource so far this year is ........4 rather large roadwork cones!  We have a big hall and they haven't made it to the outside yet- they children love them. We just stick them outside the fire door  at the end of session -quick and easy.  

Are there things already in the hall you can adapt?  Our children love it when the 'big tables' are out!   We use them to make dens etc,  again quick and easy.

Mushroom trays are your friend!......... particularly now, if you can get a few .   They are light, stack together and we use them to get small amounts of our usually free choice bits out.  Added bonus is they are great for washing resources.

I guess if your 3rd staff member is able to return and do very light duties- i.e. just watching,  supervising  this could make a huge difference, as you can put less out- and have a 'staff runner' if anything else is needed.

For drying paintings we just hand a bit of string and make a washing line across the windows.

We use the park a lot as we do not really have an outside area,  small yard type thing, so not sure how that will work from Monday.

 

x

 

 

[finleysmaid]

anyone got any advice for a child who throws up as soon as he cries! I've never had one who is so in control of his reflux!!!! I was hoping not to use my full PPE kit but he seems to have other ideas. The problem is I have to send him home then he gets to know if he chucks up he gets sent home and he doesn't want to be with us cos it's hard work ...at home he watches TV eats and tells everyone what to do. (Sounds a bit harsh maybe!?)  HELP! I've come up with a plan for monday but i am not confident it will work!