fimbo

the valuation officer told us at the time we would probably get 100% relief - i think she could see the fear in my eyes !! hope it goes well for you

That must be very hard work.....

sometimes, thanfully this intake of children are fabulously independent -and our busiest session is 12 children !!! could be worse tho -commitee thought i could operate with myself and a parent for the entire session

can anyone shed some light on this ? i know there was talk about it -but as we didnt accept 2 yr olds i kinda filtered that info into the 'dont need to know' pile

we were told last week we would be accepting 2 yr olds - so im assuming i will be having to do developmental checks too ?? is this alongside the 'development matters' ??

is this a national thing or just regional (gloucestershire) ??

bare minimum in my setting -up to 16 over three's and only 2 staff

we are in the same position as you, we had a valuation,but get 100% relief as we are a registered charity.

what about a simple paint type programme -where they can just use the mouse initially to draw lines, squiggles etc, pick colours. i know there is just the basic one that came as standard installed on our machine at playgroup.

playgroup will be paying for all the childrens tickets.

lol !!! i am writing a letter this morning, and will be presenting it to a commitee member this afternoon. trouble is its the staff who will be seen as the 'big bad wolves' as i know the commitee will blame us (and will let the parents know) if the trip doesnt go ahead.

tesco is looking more and more appealing....little bit of shelf stacking seems a welcome relief !!!

right off to work i go, thank god for the children -they make my job worthwhile.

phew.....im glad im not going mad, when you constantly get ignored and 'fobbed off' you kind of think you are slowly loosing it lol !!

When they raised the subject of the trip -they told us they wanted us to come without pay -and we would be expected to do the same duties as if we were paid +we have had so much hassle, morale is so low -we already do so much without pay, we said we would not come if we were not paid (plus we would be expected to use our own cars, and transport children)

the trip is organised for a day that is not actually a session day - we are only open 4 days a week, but i think we need to make it clear this is not a playgroup trip

please PM me if your are a setting based in gloucestershire - im after a couple of pieces of paperwork that relate specifically to my area.

help would be very much appreciated xxx

ok - the commitee asked us a few weeks ago about a christmas trip. they told us we would not be paid, and they would not be organising a mini bus -and would ask parents to transport children ( both their own children plus any others ).

we had concerns regarding this - firstly staff do not want to give up their day off to come on the trip unpaid, we are not happy about children being transported by parents (especially if its not their own parent , and its quite a distance...approx 35 miles) and the playgroup funds are to be used to pay for the tickets.

so, we left it at that.

today a poster went up in the entrance hall , asking parents to indicate if their child will be going on the trip, and if the parent will be attending.

where do we stand, what if (god forbid) something went wrong ?

the parents are going to assume its a playgroup organised trip, risk assesed, insured, first aid trained and with members of staff.

what happens if a child wants to go -but the parent cant go ? who would then be responsible for the child ?

we are constantly being told we have no money -how can playgroup afford to pay for it ?

is this something that happens in other settings ?

not sure how to handle this one.....

we have a little boy at my setting -just turned 4. over the past few weeks he has been putting his hands down his pants, started off with just the front, now its the back too.

it was initially only every now and again. it has become more frequent -as soon as you remind him to remove his hand, it goes back again !

now he has also started to expose himself -i think it pops out as he removes his had iyswim ?

we have gently asked him to remove his hand, we have had a chat about bodies and how some things are private.

im worried that the other children will notice and either make a big deal out of it (we are trying to be low key) or go home and tell parents that they keep seeing it !!!

there is no part of the session where he is more likely to do it -he even does it at the snack table.

we have spoken to mum and he does it at home also -she also asks him to remove his hand.

how do i manage this ?

many thanks -great replies and advice (as always x)

we are hoping to trial 2 year olds just in the run up to christmas, firstly to see if we have a demand and secondly to see if we can manage.

there will only be myself and assistant -and commitee hope that by accepting younger children we will be financially more viable. both myself and my assistant are more than happy to try -nappy changes are no problem..im renound for being the fastest changer around lol !!

we are very much a free play setting, and try not to sit for too long -stories are usually pretty short, or are interactive with the children, so im hoping it wont take to much adapting for 2 yr olds.

thanks for highlighting things i hadn't though of...pegs, tappits, swiping things off tables etc.....we will go through our resources nxt week and risk assess / re -locate etc.

cheers again for your help x

we receive funding for 38 weeks x 5 days = 190 days, when we work out our term dates we make sure we are only open for those 190 days -and do not open any more than that

can anyone with experience of taking 2 yr olds help with some advice please?

we were told this week we will be accepting 2 yr olds for a trial basis for 5 weeks - we currently take from 2:9, and are in a semi pack away setting.

we are all in one room -luckily we have kitchen and bathroom facilities all directly off this main room.

we will only be accepting 4 2 year olds, and 8 3 -4 yr olds, and we will have 2 qualified staff members.

we have never had 2 yr olds, and i havent had experience of working with them (apart from my own children lol !!)

can anyone give any tips ? we cant seperate the room off -so all children will be in together.

although i did get one really helpful piece of advice from my commitee , " can you try and get the children to use the toilet at the same time, so you dont have to keep changing nappies" -very helpful i thought, not many 2 year olds are potty trained, and not many of our pre-school children are either.

when i was promoted to playleader a few months ago -should I of completed an EY2 form for Ofsted ? as my chairperson has told me that she's filled it in and sent it off ??

im a bit confused -as i still havent had a suitability check -or have even been contacted by Oftsed?

cloud sand...

 

5 cups of plain flour

1 cup baby oil

Mix well together and PLAY! That's it!

 

not tried it but seen several good reviews of it..

 

everyday sensory play in pre- school

what a fab site !!! my shopping list tommorow will include baby oil, hair gel, zip lock bags and liquid startch !!

Thanks. We are trying to put off the glitter until December if possible. We had picked out a few diggers and might take up your suggestion of the coloured spots.

lol !!! i love glitter -it tends to go into everything...and everywhere ha ha !!

mmm, things to add to the sand?

what about -glitter, sequins

,lentils -pasta -rice (could be seived out)

cars and diggers

if linking it to road safety you could laminate coloured spots -red, amber, green -could they look for the spots -tell you if they are stop, go or get ready ?

pom poms

jingle bells

feathers

shells, rocks, wood, twigs

not sure what else.....i tend to chuck anything in my sand as you can see lol !!!

lol !!..i had a few of these over the summer hols, the last one was from a man with a foreign accent, calling himself Ronald Macdonald -telling me he was from microsoft and i had a virus on my computer !!

friend of mine also had one - funnily enough she's not on the internet -so no way could she have downloaded a virus !

yup - we've told them this, but (as ive already posted on previous threads) my commitee are very very very laid back re rules when it suits them, they are only after all 'guidelines' (their words )

when we had a staff member short a few weeks ago, the commitee told me it was fine for one of them to help out for an hour until the other member of staff could get in to cover. apparantly ofsted said it was ok. despite the commitee not being trained or experienced or having a clue how the session runs.

and i couldnt speak to ofsted myself as they do not know i am playleader yet -as they havent been informed of my job change from september

i think you can all see what im up against.......how long until christmas

lol...and if we waited in my setting until they were toilet trained -we would loose half our children.

well, we have 1 staff member of for tommorow- possibly the rest of the week -this means myself and the other staff member have to now work the whole session with no break -from 8.30 - 3.15, no-one is available to pop over and give us 10 mins for lunch.

i found lots on google images a few weeks ago, i made something similar last year -comparing before and after, predicting what they might look like ,what sounds they may make. good oppertunity to speak about safety too. we were very brave a got sparklers once !!

thanks again everyone - lots of suggestions there -i will note them all and out them to the commitee and staff. as mentioned our nearest competitor is the private nursery -some of our children go there (as well as coming to us) as they offer care from 8am -6pm, and as some of our mums work , it suits them better -we have adapted out hours to include 2 full day sessions, and these are the most popular - unfortunatly we are unable to open any more hours.

we have cut a member of staff -leaving us with 3 -so that will save a little on training, hol pay etc - tho this leaves us with no lee-way if we have a staff member off sick.

thanks again guys, really appreciate it xx