Upsy Daisy Posted July 31, 2017 Posted July 31, 2017 Our village preschool is run by the nursery and, during school holidays, becomes holiday club for primary aged children too.One mother has queried the suitability of the activities for her 3 year old son as they are pretty much all aimed at keeping the older children entertained. Their response was to tell her that the preschool isn't running through the holidays so her son is accessing care, not education at those times and they don't have any responsibility to offer age appropriate activities or interact with him on those days. Their role is simply supervision. I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this. To my knowledge, this approach is not taken with the younger children who are cared for on another site on full time contracts rather than term-time only.
louby loo Posted August 1, 2017 Posted August 1, 2017 My thoughts are they shouldn't be taking at that age in that case? If they take a 3 year old then surely they have a duty to provide care and activities for that age group.
zigzag Posted August 1, 2017 Posted August 1, 2017 Completely agree with Louby loo. If you are caring for children (and being paid) you should be providing for them appropriately. Let's face it, it's not hard to provide some activities and resources for that age group and in my experience the older children would probably get involved as well. I think that this really should be questioned and looked into further. Sounds like laziness to me!
Stargrower Posted August 1, 2017 Posted August 1, 2017 Wow, I'm shocked by that! We run in a similar way - we are full daycare and run a holiday club in our Pre-school Room during school holidays. We provide activities for 3 - 9 (ish) year olds and try to do things that everyone enjoys such as cooking, messy play, lots of art and craft and outdoor play. This means children can enjoy this at their own 'level' and everyone can join in. We have lots of continuous provision that everyone can use too, such as Lego, blocks, sand and water etc. etc. The majority of older children actually enjoy some nursery activities with none of the pressures of school - they have a bit of a regression and love it! We still run in the normal way for younger children - key person, obs etc but our planning is more activity and fun-based rather than EYFS and learning outcomes. I agree - if they are paying for their child to attend, they should be getting a good service and their child should be happy and cared for. 1
sunnyday Posted August 1, 2017 Posted August 1, 2017 My thoughts are they shouldn't be taking at that age in that case? If they take a 3 year old then surely they have a duty to provide care and activities for that age group. That sums it up for me!
narnia Posted August 1, 2017 Posted August 1, 2017 it doesn't matter to me whether parents are paying, or if staff are being paid, or are voluntary...............you set it up and accept children in, then you provide activities to suit all ages. What a horrid approach! 3
Upsy Daisy Posted August 1, 2017 Author Posted August 1, 2017 Thank you for your replies. I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking this is rather off.Would anyone expect to account to Ofsted in terms of recording progress, planning next steps, etc? I know Stargrower has mentioned still doing it but would Ofsted expect that?
Stargrower Posted August 2, 2017 Posted August 2, 2017 (edited) Yes, we were inspected during June half term and Ofsted looked at what we were doing on that day as well as in general (although they didn't look at planning at all but focused quite a lot on progress so you would need to show how you helped children made that progress). I think with the introduction of 30 hours and more parents stretching their funding over the year, this will become more and more important for those of us open all year. Edited August 2, 2017 by Stargrower
mundia Posted August 2, 2017 Posted August 2, 2017 For club running in school holidays and after school, they have to be guided by but do not have to meet the learning and development requirements.
bakerboo69 Posted August 3, 2017 Posted August 3, 2017 Do they have two separate registrations? or is it the same provider and one registration?
Upsy Daisy Posted August 6, 2017 Author Posted August 6, 2017 It's the same provider. Same staff too.
LKeyteach Posted August 7, 2017 Posted August 7, 2017 I think the direction about learning and development requirements is more about reception age children attending afterschool care. I think if you have preschool aged children you do have show that you are following EYFS requirements. Even if it is holiday care it is still care and is the same as any daycare facility would have to follow.
Michele_Berry Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Early years carers have a legal obligation under the early years foundation stage to meet the needs of early years children...whatever setting they attend. ...the 7 learning areas are enshrined in the care part of the EYFS. ...I agree they need to be following the EYFS if they accept children aged 5 and under they need to be planning activities suitable for them to do.
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