Group Size

[Guest]

The Ofsted standard states that the size of a group must not exceed 26.

 

Therefore, how come I have come across 3 nurseries recently where the size of one or more of the groups is above 30?

 

I am confused

[Guest]

That will be because they have more than one room. We have 32 children each session and have 4/5 rooms that the children can access. In theory we shouldn't have all 32 children in the same room at any time, but we do for very brief periods when we are organising them into different groups. The standards state that there must be a maximum of 26 children in a group but there can be more than one group in the setting.

Linda

[Guest]

In one of them the whole group are together for the majority of the day. There is another small cupboard sized room that fits about 2 children and 1 adult in it for focused activities???????

[Guest]

Does the floor space rule still apply? With so many new regs i cant remember what still stands or not sometimes! I know it used to be something like the size of the room, divided by ? (cant remember!) say 1.2 square meters per child, this will give you a total of children allowed to attend at one time, although the number will be restricted such as ours is a huge hall and our stated maxium is 24 children.

[alis2son]

I have noticed that in a certain school they have more than 26 children in a session, in only one room, they have more than twice our floor space, and the children are split into 3 groups, but if this were a daycare setting, i think OFSTED would definatley have something to say about that.

[Guest]

I'm in a large hall the size of 2 badminton courts. We use the whole hall for 52 children 2 groups of 26. They are separate for registration then come together for about 40 minutes then separate into 2 groups again for various things like toilet time, drinks, outside, songs, stories. We find that its fine and actually works well. they are separated in the hall by screens that we move about, to create different areas.

The one stipulation is that we cannot have more than 26 under 3's, but then as my staff laughingly say who would want 26 under 3's in one room!!!!!!

 

We have been measured on our floor space which is huge. If we allowed the correct amount of children for the floor space we would have nearer the 100!!!!!!

 

I think it how you utilise the space as much as anything. and the noise levels was always taken into account.

[Sue R]

At max, we have 27 Pre-school children in two rooms, which allow for free flow, as different activities are out in each. I think this is the key as Linda says.

 

Sue