September opening

[twinthinguk]

4 hours ago, sunnyday said:

I might need to just stop making plans - has anyone seen today's 'leak' about 'enhanced shielding'? It talks about shielding everyone over 50 - ridiculous idea - what percentage of the working population would that be?

Anyway, if that happened we would be (insert your own choice of expletive here!) as we are all 50+ (for me personally I am 50+++)

It has always been, in my humble, such an advantage to have a 'mature' team - hmm maybe that is not the case anymore.....

oh wow lol I was 50 last Thursday and 4 out 10 practitioners at my setting are over 50.......lets hope that does not happen x

[sunnyday]

As you were ladies, Robert Jenrick says that it just 'speculation'

Hmm - kite flying more like

[anju]

1 hour ago, sunnyday said:

As you were ladies, Robert Jenrick says that it just 'speculation'

Hmm - kite flying more like

Yes as with many of the proposals - flout it,  see what the reaction is then decide Or close it down 😬

[finleysmaid]

Cant see there will be many MPs left!😅

[sunnyday]

11 hours ago, finleysmaid said:

Cant see there will be many MPs left!😅

Sure they would be just fine - they can all work from home 😂

[DebBrad]

oh my goodness, I am 50++ and only have three staff which half are 50 !! 

[DebBrad]

17 hours ago, twinthinguk said:

oh wow lol I was 50 last Thursday and 4 out 10 practitioners at my setting are over 50.......lets hope that does not happen x

Yep I'm 50++ and half my staff to !! we only have four staff...

[Stargrower]

Just wanted to offer what we're doing in case it's any help to anyone.

We stopped having "bubbles" and splitting rooms on 20th July when this requirement ended

We are using dressing up clothes (as such, we don't have costumes but use hats, fabric etc)  We take these out of circulation for 72 hours or wash it and rotate what's on offer

We do the same with books, out for 72 hours

We use playdough but throw away at the end of the day

We aren't using soft furnishings.  Children's bedding is used as normal and washed at the end of the week.

We are closing to children at 5pm instead of 6pm so that we can clean and disinfect resources, furniture, equipment etc.  For some reason I thought there was more guidance coming on 20th July for enhanced cleaning but it didn't appear so I think I made it up!

We are spending 95% of our time outside and are set up to spend the entire day outside which we are doing a lot of the time.  We have settled new children in outside with parents staying when needed.

We are tired! 😴😆

[sunnyday]

1 hour ago, Stargrower said:

Just wanted to offer what we're doing in case it's any help to anyone.

We stopped having "bubbles" and splitting rooms on 20th July when this requirement ended

We are using dressing up clothes (as such, we don't have costumes but use hats, fabric etc)  We take these out of circulation for 72 hours or wash it and rotate what's on offer

We do the same with books, out for 72 hours

We use playdough but throw away at the end of the day

We aren't using soft furnishings.  Children's bedding is used as normal and washed at the end of the week.

We are closing to children at 5pm instead of 6pm so that we can clean and disinfect resources, furniture, equipment etc.  For some reason I thought there was more guidance coming on 20th July for enhanced cleaning but it didn't appear so I think I made it up!

We are spending 95% of our time outside and are set up to spend the entire day outside which we are doing a lot of the time.  We have settled new children in outside with parents staying when needed.

We are tired! 😴😆

That is enormously helpful thank you Stargrower

[Stargrower]

Glad it's helpful.

Meant to add

We are using our big outdoor sandpit.  We rake it over at the end of the day but don't disinfect or spray Milton or the like

We're using water with antibac soap in it for play.

If I think of anything else, I'll add it, but so much is "setting dependent"

I think there are a few threads going on with the same subject, but hopefully we all read everything!

[finleysmaid]

is anyone getting worried about using antibac products or alcohol gels on their little ones? until this pandemic they were a no-no because they are either not good for young skin or because they have high amounts of alcohol in them that can be absorbed through the skin...do we all think that under the new 'normals' that it is ok to use??

[anju]

6 minutes ago, finleysmaid said:

is anyone getting worried about using antibac products or alcohol gels on their little ones? until this pandemic they were a no-no because they are either not good for young skin or because they have high amounts of alcohol in them that can be absorbed through the skin...do we all think that under the new 'normals' that it is ok to use??

We’ve always used anti bac hand soap unless they have eczema etc and parents provide an alternative. We didn’t use hand gel just made sure they washed hands frequently when we reopened. I think I read that you can use the hand gel but under supervision which you would be anyway. Not sure though. 

[sunnyday]

21 minutes ago, finleysmaid said:

is anyone getting worried about using antibac products or alcohol gels on their little ones? until this pandemic they were a no-no because they are either not good for young skin or because they have high amounts of alcohol in them that can be absorbed through the skin...do we all think that under the new 'normals' that it is ok to use??

Yes, very much so fm. Think we will have to use on arrival but will then move on to handwashing only

[finleysmaid]

31 minutes ago, anju said:

We’ve always used anti bac hand soap unless they have eczema etc and parents provide an alternative. We didn’t use hand gel just made sure they washed hands frequently when we reopened. I think I read that you can use the hand gel but under supervision which you would be anyway. Not sure though. 

how do you manage this? we always have a few with eczema 

[louby loo]

We're planning on hand washing only.  We haven't used anti-bac hand wash for a long time.

 

[anju]

13 minutes ago, finleysmaid said:

how do you manage this? we always have a few with eczema 

We tell parents that what we normally use when they come and look round and it hasn’t been a problem. Only very occasionally, one has eczema and they provide something different, sometimes prescribed, and we use that for that child 

[anju]

There are various ones I’ve bought over the years eg 

https://groceries.asda.com/product/hand-wash/radox-kids-frozen-antibacterial-handwash/910002548399

[Cait]

Crikey, in my day that would have left only one! 

[Stargrower]

We use "normal" soap and water for children.  I think making sure they wash their hands thoroughly is more important than antibac soap.

[blondie]

We do too - children are watched / supported as they wash their hands and we also have a simple poster showing them too - my phrase when watching is "Don't forget your thumbs." In fact I said it so many times the children would say it before I could lol !!

[zigzag]

Is anyone changing their opening hours in September due to the virus?

[anju]

2 minutes ago, zigzag said:

Is anyone changing their opening hours in September due to the virus?

We have lost so much money, I’m planning to extend the hours to try and get some more funds in. Will have to see how it goes. 

[finleysmaid]

Urmmmm i have just heard on BBC breakfast that schools will have a small amount of home testing kits available for covid to be given out if necessary.......why do we not have any? ??? some of the nurseries locally have more children than schools.

Why is it that we are still suffering from descrimination in the education sector? (no information from police/social services/domestic violence/health visitors etc etc etc) really pushing my buttons. Why if we need children to have a flu jab do they not come to preschools and nurseries to do it .....they could organise parent times to pop in and support their children and get 30/40/50 children done in quick succession (or more in some of the big nurseries) with 90 odd% of children accessing nurseries and pre-schools why do health not recognise this???? sorry rant over! seems to me that we had made big strides in being recognised as the universal service we are to be at the bottom of the respect pile again.😡

[Stargrower]

Couldn't agree more finleysmaid.  I feel as well that we've been guinea pigs for the "opening of schools to all children" in September but we never get a mention.  Take 40% furlough instead of 80%, don't complain, put our heads down and get on with it.

[sunnyday]

8 hours ago, finleysmaid said:

Urmmmm i have just heard on BBC breakfast that schools will have a small amount of home testing kits available for covid to be given out if necessary.......why do we not have any? ??? some of the nurseries locally have more children than schools.

Why is it that we are still suffering from descrimination in the education sector? (no information from police/social services/domestic violence/health visitors etc etc etc) really pushing my buttons. Why if we need children to have a flu jab do they not come to preschools and nurseries to do it .....they could organise parent times to pop in and support their children and get 30/40/50 children done in quick succession (or more in some of the big nurseries) with 90 odd% of children accessing nurseries and pre-schools why do health not recognise this???? sorry rant over! seems to me that we had made big strides in being recognised as the universal service we are to be at the bottom of the respect pile again.😡

Round of applause for fm please!

100% agreement with all of your points

[sunnyday]

8 hours ago, zigzag said:

Is anyone changing their opening hours in September due to the virus?

No, are you zigzag?

[louby loo]

10 hours ago, zigzag said:

Is anyone changing their opening hours in September due to the virus?

We're sort of considering opening longer due to such a high demand this year- but want to wait and see how thing pan out for a while.... can't take anymore children if I only have the two staff members  that can actually work (under 50🤣🤣)

Which bring me to age discrimination - sure even hinting that over 50's might need to work from home etc is going to create this?....... we had someone asking about vacancies and I have to be totally honest- I'm thinking well you do look under 50....  

[zigzag]

4 hours ago, sunnyday said:

No, are you zigzag?

I really don’t know. I am struggling to think about September due to family circumstances but know that I have to try and give it some thought. Unusually we are starting September with high (for us) numbers bit with a staff member down (until we employ someone). We currently do two days and one morning to make our 15 hours but am toying with (for the first half term at least) just going back to opening every morning.  

[Stargrower]

On 05/08/2020 at 07:39, zigzag said:

Is anyone changing their opening hours in September due to the virus?

We're open 8 - 5 instead of 8 - 6 at the moment to give us cleaning time at the end of the day.  I was really hoping we'd be able to go back to 6pm finish in September but it doesn't look like anything is going to change cleaning-wise...

[anju]

6 minutes ago, Stargrower said:

We're open 8 - 5 instead of 8 - 6 at the moment to give us cleaning time at the end of the day.  I was really hoping we'd be able to go back to 6pm finish in September but it doesn't look like anything is going to change cleaning-wise...

We have been open less hours up til now too, to allow for cleaning, but you’re right; there will still be lots of cleaning in September 😬 We have got more efficient at doing it but there’s still a cost involved and no reimbursement for that of course.