debs1

Thanks for your reply Rebecca. I have though about this in the past, but as I am going on leave next week, I wanted to have something that made it easier for the girls to inform parents of events etc without having to keep texting them all.

Maybe I might look at that one in the future. x

Does anyone know of any apps that you are able to communicate with parents with that are cheap or even free?

I've had somebody on the phone today showing me a demonstration of one which I have to pay for and she is wanting me to ring her back shortly.

I've been stung with a few times in the years I have been in operation by different organisations.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would be very grateful.

Thanks

Deb

Just seen your post. So sorry to hear about your situation. It's a hard position to have faced.

I believe things happen for a reason.

Running a nursery, especially a small one can be extremely hard as you end up doing so much.

Hope you find the perfect post for yourself. X

Didn't think of ringing insurance company. I just added a bit in stating that they were happy for their child to restart nursery and that they understood they would be more prone to injury in the affected area should they fall. Therefore we wouldn't be responsible should the injury reoccur at our setting which wasn't through negligence. Not sure if right, so don't mind comments.

Hope you get yours sorted too.

Has anyone got a risk assessment for a child coming back to nursery that had had a broken bone?

This child has the right amount of time, though someone mentioned about us putting in a bit of a disclaimer should the child hurt herself in the same area.

I've risked assessed before, but not put anything like that in, as I thought I would be covered as long as I take steps to ensure her safety.

Thanks

Debbie ?

Can I ask this please. What if somebody's previous employer keeps making excuses for not filling in a reference?

If there was any concerns over that persons suitability, should they not have a duty of care to say so regardless of there own personal feelings towards a previous employee.

In the meantime we're a member of staff down!

Regarding application forms, I prefer doing these. Mine was from the pre school learning alliance so it's already done for you.

Thanks x

I know this is an old post, but i haven't been offered anything for taking 2 year olds!!!

Should i have been offered something?

Just been looking at supervision session as i don't do anything formal like that. However, i am in close contact with my staff daily and we do make time to discuss any concerns. I always pass training onto staff and ask them if there is anything they would like to do. I also advise if i think something would benefit them.

Surely this is more beneficial than taking staff away from the children who are supposedly our priority!

The system has gone crazy!!!!! Safeguarding......yeah right!

Think it should be communication in question and whether managers/supervisors are actually spending any time in the nursery rather than spending all day in an office.

They are a terrible company to deal with. (They take all the nappies away).

I've got shut of them. If i wasn't going through a stressful time, i would have let them try and take me to court.

I sent a letter to cancel with over 3 months notice and they said they never received it.

They just make up thier own rules and prices!

I ended up cancelling my direct debit and disposed of the nappies myself as we only had a couple of children in nappies.

If you can hack it, let them take you to court, as apparhently they go ill prepared and often their cases are dismissed.

I paid a get out fee of around £120.

I'm not sure if you can cancel due to being dissatified with their services? When you do send a letter, you need to make sure you send it recorded delivery and it has to be to a certain department. Check out reviews on PHS as you'll find people offer some good advice on what to do and also you can actually see how bad they really are!!!

Hope you manage to get rid of them as they are the most corrupt company. If able to communicate via email, i would do that as at least you have records if needed.

Hiya.

I ordered some black cafe type aprons which are just the right size for putting notepads etc in.

Everyone is finding them quite useful, as your not searching around for a pad and pen when need to

jot something down quickly.

I think though, i may have paid more than i needed to as i have since seen a website called thecleverbaggers.co.uk.

They look really reasonably priced and it makes sence to have them embroidered.

Other places use tabbards, but not everyone likes wearing them.

Deb

Just scrolling through the forum and found the A5 booklet you've put on Cait. Fab! Thank you so much for sharing that. :1b

Hiya. We have had children on 15 hours for quite some time. We offer three 5 hour sessions for those who only want their free hours.

If i was to do it any other way, i would have to close my nursery. It's the only way i can make it work for us.

As far as not including lunch time, i don't know where that has come from? Lunch time is a great social time and a lovely opportunity for the adults to sit down and talk with the children.

It should be fine as long as your not charging anything for those funded hours. You have to make it work for you as a setting.

We try to offer some flexibility where they can choose from 8 until 1 and 12 till 5 and 1 till 6.

At the end of the day, do whatever works best for yourselves.

Hope things work out

Deb

We have a traffic light system which seems to be quite effective.

All of their photos start on the green light. If they do something that isn't too great, they're generally warned first about going onto amber. If it's something pretty bad, they go straight onto the amber. We do give them chance to get back down to green. So if they're good, we move them back down into the green, or amber if they're on red.

The red is for those who are not taking any notice and carrying on doing what they shouldn't be doing.

We probably should be doing stars of the week, though we do have stickers that we give them. A lot of the children were looking at where they were on the chart. It definatley worked for most of the children.

For individual charts, we have downloaded some from sparklebox which are great.

Hi there

This is something our quality development officer picked up on and she made me feel really inadequate as she stressed that it's my responsibility. One of the staff who's CRB is over 3 years is on leave at the moment, but we have one who was checked just 3 years ago. I haven't found anything that states this is a requirement to be checked every 3 years. I also rang the pre-school learning alliance who said it's recommended, but not a requirement.

Everybody will have to have these re-done anyway next year with the new regulations. I don't fancy paying out for CRB's that now that have to be re-newed next year. We're due an inspection at any time now, so it's something that has been really bothering me. This person who's CRB is just 3 years will also be leaving in December.

What would you all do?

Deb

What a lot of tosh!! (Don't mean what anyone's wrote. Just can't believe this silly rule)This government is becoming a dictatorship!! I'm due to have a baby very soon and i was suggesting to my friend that she drops her little one off with me if her shift is awkward, then i can take her child round to the nursery, or if she's on a late shift, i could pick her little one up. She'd probably do the same for me, as we'll be working different days from each other.

I fully intend to carry this out. Not everybody has loads of family to help out.

I think people are extremely sad who have reported those 2 women. How vindictive can you get!

I guess we'll just have to see what they actually come up with. Thank you for whoever posted the link for the petition.

Deb

Yeah!!

Better get back to my work!

Hi there

Will see if i can actually upload something. Here's our checklist.....hopefully, besides the food stadards pack we use.

Not sure if it's worked!

Deb

kitchen_cleaning_checklist.doc

Hi all

Will add our SEF form when i'm feeling a little less stressed. Have an Ofsted inspection looming and i'm up to my ears in work!!!!

Will need to delete names etc, but ours is pretty much completed. Been trying to up-date my operational file to. Aggghhhhhh!

Appreciate people sharing their info. It would be a shame if we felt we couldn't share what we'd done.

Deb

Hi there

We offer the 15 hours over three 5 hour sessions per week for those wanting only term time hours. We do give some flexibility if somebody is doing full days, then we just charge an hourly rate for additional hours.

If we let parents do only a few hours a day, i wouldn't be able to exist.

If parents are full time, we actually deduct the funding off for them.

At the end of the day, you have to make your business sustainable. It's okay saying offer 15 hours per week, which is good, but you have to do what's best for you. They should actually offer a bit more of an insentive for losses during holiday times.

Hope you decide what to do, as i know it can get quite complicated.

Deb

Just checked out what you put on Peggy. That's great!!

Think i'll be doing quite a bit of printing.

Debs

What a star!!

This is something we were talking about doing only this week.

Thanks loads for putting these on. Hope i can return a favour sometime.

Debs

Hi Tess

I've just employed a level 3 nursery nurse and i had a couple of people interested who were doing foundation degrees. They hadn't actually worked in an early years setting and also a newly qualified teacher - she also had never done early years either, so none of them met the person spec. Was a shame they hadn't had relevant experience, but to us, it was more important for the person we employed to be able to get on with the job.

Can't understand myself how they can qualify without the relevant experience???

Sounds like some good advice on a practical activity. We usually get them arriving 15 mins earlier to do a short written task and then we send them into the nursery to see what they're like with the children/staff. Usually gives us a good indication.

Good luck with your decision

Deb

Thanks for advice everyone.

Have had my head in my SEF form most of the afternoon. It's so time consuming isn't it? Am feeling pretty shattered!

Do intend on doing my policies pretty much like the PLA ones as they do look pretty good.

Think you're probably right that i won't get penialised for not having them under the areas as long as i cover all that i should do.

I need a life!!!

Cheers, Debs

Hi. Can anyone help? I've been updating our policies and have bought the pre-school learning alliance ones which are very good. I previously used there's before and just added bits in, but now it looks to have totally changed where they're set out under each of the areas of the welfare requirements.

Will it matter if i don't have them under these areas as long as i cover all of the policies? Was thinking of putting an action plan together to show that we intend on re-arranging this.

I've just got so much to do, that i don't know whether i'll be able to manage this as well.

Am currently re-arranging and re-typing a lot of my operational plan and we're going through the SEF form which by the way is also pretty lengthy. We should be due an inspection next month which i am absolutely dreading!! I feel that the nursery is doing really well, it's just all this paperwork that i'm getting bogged down with. Doesn't help when i can't get out of the nursery which i should be able to do, but there always seems to be something - hols etc.

Any advice would be really welcomed, as i don't fancy getting pulled up by ofsted.

Thanks

Debs

Hi, i find that my staff like to ensure that they have something in their file to show the parents on parents evening and they have been so good where they have done files in their own time. I think if you have one person who's doing a good job, usually, the others follow suit. Usually before the parents evening, they're pretty behind on their files. Definatley recommend parents evenings

I keep a bit more of an eye on them and ask staff to produce the next steps for their children to include in the following weeks planning.

I also give them just over an hour each week to spend time going through observations, writing up etc and they are encouraged to do this also with the children, though i would like to see a bit more involvement with the children.

I try to help them at times by ensuring they have the relevant paperwork and print photos off when i get the chance.

Think it's pretty important to spend some time in the nursery if you can and although it's sometimes a pain when they go and do their work as i'm then part of the ratio with the children, it does cut down on a bit of frustration for staff. It just means that i have to sometimes do work after hours.

I don't actually pay staff for extra hours other than at meetings outside of nursery hours, but if they have done a lot in their own time, i sometimes give them an extra day hol, or if they have appointments, i don't dock hours.

Saying all this, i only have a small nursery. It probably is much more difficult in a larger nursery.

I'd probably do regular reviews if you can do with your staff so they can show you what they've been doing to help the children progress. This is something i'm going to look at doing also. It's just finding convienient times, which isn't always easy.

Can one of your deputies not keep an eye on records for you to enable you to concentrate on other things?

Good luck, it's not an easy task ensuring staff are up-to-date with files. Have been on the other side of things and it is a difficult thing getting obs while carrying out your expected duties in a busy nursery.

Deb