Enter if you’ve washed your hands

[louby loo]

1 minute ago, Mouseketeer said:

We’re the same Louby, we only have a couple obvious ones until we know the KW list (I thought that was being announced but not even mentioned), but I guess if staff on full pay we will stay open, though we won’t have any milk as cool milk have jumped in already to cancel milk deliveries.

What is everyone else doing re staff wages? I’m seeing so many posts saying will only pay all SSP, surely that isn’t an option especially if they aren’t actually ill and if claiming all the funding they will be profiting quite nicely in some cases without as Boris says ‘standing by their employees’ 🤔 

We are paying full pay until Easter, next term will be 80%.

 Our funding is being paid, so feel it should be passed onto staff. Most of our children are funded- but we do have a few that pay. I'm not sure if we will get funding for the current children that would be eligible after Easter - my fault as I've not read the small print yet- but if they do and we end up with more than expected- staff we either get a small bonus near Christmas, or a big meal out!  We are a not-for-profit group and most of our money goes on staffing.

 

[nomski100]

🤔

[nomski100]

Just now, nomski100 said:

🤔

Undercover info.....

[twinthinguk]

I can't find any information on my local authority website! how many hours are we supposed to offer???

 

[sunnyday]

5 hours ago, Stargrower said:

Is anyone planning to stay open?  We have keyworkers' children, vulnerable children, those on CP plans etc.  We are staying open to the bitter end  - until I don't have enough staff or the army come and take me away.  This ship isn't ready to sink yet!  Anyone else doing the same?

Go Stargrower!

[sunnyday]

5 hours ago, zigzag said:

We are closing as we have no families that fall into those categories. I truly cannot get my head around how long this may be for.  I am going to make up simple hone learning activity packs on a weekly basis and parents can collect from outside pre-school and also borrow any books as well. I have said I will also deliver to anyone self isolating or unable to drive.  Have also been asked to do video challenges for the children.  Surreal times.

Nice idea zigzag - what sort of things are going into your packs?

Oh and yes, we are closing - this must be the first time ever that I have not had key-worker parents so I am taking that as a sign!

[finleysmaid]

6 hours ago, Stargrower said:

Is anyone planning to stay open?  We have keyworkers' children, vulnerable children, those on CP plans etc.  We are staying open to the bitter end  - until I don't have enough staff or the army come and take me away.  This ship isn't ready to sink yet!  Anyone else doing the same?

Still awaiting info from the borough about this...have you heard officially? I don't think we're allowed to stay open for the other children though...we need to keep the numbers low to stop cross infection

[sunnyday]

1 hour ago, Mouseketeer said:

We’re the same Louby, we only have a couple obvious ones until we know the KW list (I thought that was being announced but not even mentioned), but I guess if staff on full pay we will stay open, though we won’t have any milk as cool milk have jumped in already to cancel milk deliveries.

What is everyone else doing re staff wages? I’m seeing so many posts saying will only pay all SSP, surely that isn’t an option especially if they aren’t actually ill and if claiming all the funding they will be profiting quite nicely in some cases without as Boris says ‘standing by their employees’ 🤔 

I intend to pay full wages - as long as I am receiving full funding then why would I not?

[sunnyday]

Felt so sad at pre-school this morning - I was able to speak to each parent individually, two were in tears  I imagine that tomorrow will be even worse......but not for the children I have some fun activities planned and we will bring our Easter Egg Hunt forward by a week (thank goodness I bought the eggs a couple of weeks ago)

I really hope that the Government might decide that we can re-open at some point before the end of the summer - who knows.....would be awful to not do any of our transition 'stuff'

I can't pretend though that this is not a great relief for me, just wasn't quite prepared for Boris to say "this Friday" (it would seem that the LAs didn't think it would be quite so soon either) I was feeling increasingly 'unsafe' and worried about what I might bring home to Mr S (he almost certainly would not survive this virus) - it has all been very stressful

[zigzag]

19 minutes ago, sunnyday said:

Nice idea zigzag - what sort of things are going into your packs?

Well we already have home learning packs but these have equipment in and I don’t want to have to be washing things before I can lend them again.  So I thought I would do printed activities, colouring sheets, cutting sheets, rhymes songs etc.  Anything that can be printed onto A4, so no need to buy add extra resources.  All I want is a tiny donation towards printing inks. I will get stuff off Twinkl and ideas from other sites etc.  I have already posted the download that the Tapestry education team have made onto our Tapestry account.  (It’s really good, everyone should have a look at it) One of my parents has suggested that I can do a video to the children setting them a challenge, which I will do but I like to be behind the camera not in front of it so that’s going to be my challenge!  It would be good to hear what others may be planning to do.

[finleysmaid]

i have spent much time today sorting out packs for our children...gone down the creative line, paper crayons bag of bits and pieces a few printed items etc etc ...all the items they would have used over the next couple of weeks plus a book each from our VAST collection upped the twitter stuff and will be using tapestry too (Thank goodness for TAPESTRY!!!)

[zigzag]

7 minutes ago, sunnyday said:

Felt so sad at pre-school this morning - I was able to speak to each parent individually, two were in tears  I imagine that tomorrow will be even worse......but not for the children I have some fun activities planned and we will bring our Easter Egg Hunt forward by a week (thank goodness I bought the eggs a couple of weeks ago)

I really hope that the Government might decide that we can re-open at some point before the end of the summer - who knows.....would be awful to not do any of our transition 'stuff'

I can't pretend though that this is not a great relief for me, just wasn't quite prepared for Boris to say "this Friday" (it would seem that the LAs didn't think it would be quite so soon either) I was feeling increasingly 'unsafe' and worried about what I might bring home to Mr S (he almost certainly would not survive this virus) - it has all been very stressful

Ahh Sunnyday I feel exactly the same.  The thought of no summer term at all just leaves me speechless.  I have a couple of families who have gone into isolation with symptoms and I will feel nothing but relief to not have to go into work. My parents are in their eighties and Dad has a weak chest and is increasingly frail and I worry continuously about the risk of passing something on.  I made the difficult decision today not to go and see them due to being with said children yesterday.  It will be a day of mixed feelings tomorrow.  Very jealous of you having your eggs already and very sad that we will now not be doing our usual egg hunt! Enjoy your last day Sunnyday and stay healthy. Xx

[zigzag]

Have you seen these that the Tapestry education team are putting together? They are great and we will definitely be sharing all of them with our parents as the weeks go on.   Thank you Tapestry team😀

[Froglet]

19 minutes ago, zigzag said:

Have you seen these that the Tapestry education team are putting together? They are great and we will definitely be sharing all of them with our parents as the weeks go on.   Thank you Tapestry team😀

Where can I find those?

[nomski100]

5 minutes ago, Froglet said:

Where can I find those?

I can’t find these🤔

[louby loo]

We're not on tapestry    they look interesting.

This has hit us quickly- so not really had time to arrange home-kits before the children stopped coming in.

We're in a London commuter belt town, so many of our parents have already stopped coming   we've averaged 8/26 all week. We have one key-worker parent- but she already has her child sorted. We have a max of 5 in tomorrow morning and then we close.

We've turned our home learning onto the parents and asked if they can post pictures (with no faces) of any activities they had done/tried etc. We are going to set little challenges/ideas weekly.

To be honest it's been a very stressful week, but now I know funding will be paid, staff will be paid so feel slightly less stressed.

We are lucky, we are a term time sessional so lot less money to lose than a full year or with before and after care.

If we don't open during the summer term, as we're based in a large park,  we're thinking of doing a picnic towards the end of August /beginning of Sept  and having an outdoor celebration for our leavers. Hopefully we will be able to by then

On a positive, I need to do our accounts for the year and now I have time. ( after a week with my head in the accounts I might even be able to pay full not 80%- but I didn't want to promise this to staff yet )

 

[Stargrower]

If we close I won't be able to pay wages after this month.  Funding is only  proportion of our income.  If we close we won't open again.  The support offered isn't nearly enough and how could we repay loans if we're already flat broke.  I'm fighting to stay open but fear the worst.  I'm heartbroken. 

[sunnyday]

That's so sad Stargrower - I hope you can find a way to stay open

[anju]

Guidance for settings including the list of key workers. They want children to stay at home where possible though, which makes sense as it obviously limits the virus more than sending them to school or nursery

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

guidance for parents 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

[playgroup1]

Do we have to inform Ofsted that we're closed? I know we do if we close in "ordinary" circumstances. But what about now?

[finleysmaid]

11 minutes ago, playgroup1 said:

Do we have to inform Ofsted that we're closed? I know we do if we close in "ordinary" circumstances. But what about now?

I think a message to your LEA would be the way to go at present since we don't know when we are reopening. I guess when we reopen then a message to ofsted by email to say we're back up and running (so that they can come and inspect us!) ....i have NO official guidance on this just my thoughts

[finleysmaid]

wow what a day. The confusion caused by the government advice is rediculous....i just wanted to assure people that Everyone should be in isolation unless they have essential jobs...the safest place for the children is at home with their parents . It is also the safest way to ensure our society gets back to normal, quickly Please don't open for children unless they REALLY need to be with you and have no one else to look after them. Think of your family and your staff...please don't put them at risk

[anju]

Well said @finleysmaid  I decided not to stay open for one or two children and risk my staff getting infected or spreading infection especially on public transport on the way to work. The bigger message is stay home and the more people adhere to this, the quicker we can return to normal.

Keep safe everyone.

[lynned55]

We closed. We only had a handful of keyworker children I asked all our parents this morning to get back to me if they fitted the criteria and none did- so assume they have all made alternative arrangements. So, why do I feel so guilty at closing! 

and sad, so, so sad. Honestly when they announced this on Weds night it was Bedlam- I had both my daughters contacting me, staff - parents emailing in droves and I just wanted to sit down and cry!! I just keep thinking of all those poor children that should be going to school in September, our children that really are better off being with us but aren't classed as vulnerable, the two children whose EHC plans have been delayed cos of red tape and the other 12 children we have on our SEN register who now wont get any help or support to prepare them for school or when they go to school. My little August birthday grandson who despite his birth date is loving school and doing brilliantly in Reception- will now almost certainly be going into Yr 1 totally unprepared. All those poor children doing A levels and GCSE's - I just cant bear thinking about it. 

I think after this weekend I'm going to come out of work mode and go into home mode and stop constantly watching the news for info. Like you all I have found the last few days so stressful. It's such a responsibility isnt it- we've had so many children off this week as well - just not worth opening.

But I now need to pull myself together and be grateful that all of my family are still in paid work, all are in good (ish) health

I love the infograph that is up on Tapestry- I'm def going to be sending that to parents regularly- I will also us eit with my 4 year old grandson. He is classed as a keychild because of his dads job but my daughter only works 3 days, his dad is shifts so with me having him as well odd days we can manage. She's worried about sending him to school.

Stay safe everyone & keep washing your hands!

 

[zigzag]

I am going to be honest and was totally shocked by the ‘key worker list’.  So many jobs included on it.  I only have two key workers and one has said they wouldn’t expect us to open and the other has been asking. How on earth could you provide a normal environment for one child? You just couldn’t. We are closing and that is that. I think all schools and settings in our area will go down the line of having a hub (we are very rural, tiny schools) so am going to sign post to that.

[nomski100]

When you sign post you must also have a member of staff to go with those children that have parents that are keyworkers 😬

[lynned55]

1 minute ago, nomski100 said:

When you sign post you must also have a member of staff to go with those children that have parents that are keyworkers 😬

Really? Who is saying that- nothing in guidelines. Makes sense to be honest for childs sake but may not be possible. 

[lynned55]

Our local hospital has just declared a 'critical incident' as they have hit capacity due to a surge of cases.

Doesn't bode well for us residents. 

[nomski100]

Just got this from LA: 

‘We continue to ask you all to remain open to support the children of key workers as identified by the government. As well as these children, we also ask you to continue to offer care to vulnerable children which we can now confirm includes FEE2 and those in receipt of SENIF funding’ 

 

came a bit late for me as as I closed today! 

[blondie]

19 hours ago, Stargrower said:

If we close I won't be able to pay wages after this month.  Funding is only  proportion of our income.  If we close we won't open again.  The support offered isn't nearly enough and how could we repay loans if we're already flat broke.  I'm fighting to stay open but fear the worst.  I'm heartbroken. 

will the chancellor help with his news?