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Thankfully we own the building and as a charity we get 80% rate relief - which is how we just about manage

That price is for 2-5 yr old, 49 weeks per year 8-6 - so 3.60 per hour. We don't charge for anything extra at all - We don't make any money either!! (we are non-profit) but we do manage to pay a bit above minimum wage, not use apprentices in our ratio and to just about cover our costs. It is hard but all our nurseries are in deprived areas so parents can't afford more.

£14K!! - Not here - full time is £8800

I decided about 20 years ago never to iron again at all - and I haven't !

We buy ours from here and have bought some recently. Its a Nottingham based supplier but delivers countrywide https://www.county-supplies.org/product/5333150/Powder-Paint-25kg---Leaf-Green

Am also keen to know this. I am looking to replace my Nursery Management system at the moment but every one I look at has learning journals included and I don't want two systems but our staff are reluctant to get rid of Tapestry as they are so used to it.

Those who know me will know that I am always very firm with parents about what is acceptable and I never pander to them. I have one parent who has not followed rules around this pandemic so I have withdrawn her place for the time being. She argued with me but I told her that it is my responsibility to keep the staff and children safe and I have introduced procedures to do so but I am not meeting my obligation if I knowingly allow a person who is flouting guidelines to come into the setting. However much the child benefits from nursery, you have to put the safety of those who are sticking to the rules and the safety of you, your family and your staff team first. If he only comes one a day a week, he isn't going to miss so much - many children have been out of school and nursery on and off since last March.

We make about £250 on our annual clothes collection. It is easy as it doesn't cost parents anything and all they have to do is bring in a bag of old unwanted clothes/shoes/bedding etc. and to be honest, most of them are glad to get rid of them and bringing them to us when they re coming to nursery anyway is much easier than going to the charity shop. We just send them a couple of reminders by text and put some signs up and then remind them all verbally the last day before collection. The collection date is pre-arranged and they just turn up - take it all away and then send us a cheque - simples! Staff bring theirs in too. https://bag2school.com/ The other way we raise funds is dress-down Friday - staff pay £1 to come in non-uniform on a Friday (if they want to obviously). We get about £250 per year from that too. In the past, we have held coffee and cake day for parents - as you say, they are too busy to get involved but if we set up a coffee stall in reception in the morning (we buy paper cups with lids and have an urn set up) and get the cook to make a couple of home made cakes, they will buy a coffee and cake to take to work with them - at £2 a go, its cheaper than Starbucks/Pret et al. and for a much better cause (and many buy extra cake to take for their work colleagues) We also put a couple of tables in the dining area if they don't work and want to buy, then stay and chat with each other (after dropping children off). Other than that, we have saved money by asking parents to do some jobs for us e.g. weeding, putting shelves up, making cushions/tablecloths/aprons/dolls clothes. Its always worth asking in a newsletter if anyone has any skills we can use.

To be honest, if there is no valid health reason, whatever his reason and whether or not you could do something else for him, - my approach would be that this is our policy and parents either accept and abide by it, or they don't attend our nursery. That may sound harsh but the whole point of the procedures we have all put in place is to protect everyone. I will always listen to parents requests and discuss anything with them, but will never allow them to dictate or insist on something or refuse to abide by our guidelines.

I wonder if anyone knows of any short (10-15 minute) DVDs for early years. We don't usually have TV on at nursery but thought we might try showing a DVD in reception in the mornings whilst the children are waiting to come in as it is taking so much longer to get the children in now due to hand washing/shoe changing/temperature/parent questions etc. I don't want any long ones as it might make it impossible to get them into nursery! Anything short/educational/appropriate etc.

I have spoken to someone from the LA now and they are planning to fund us the same level as last Autumn, rather than this Spring as it is more realistic (and obvs cheaper for them) which is fine by me. Autumn is always the lowest numbers anyway - we will just have to work really hard to build the numbers back up.

We have separated all our toys into plastic boxes - all grouped and labelled - they are all stacked in a separate room and we rotate them twice each session, if the children are really enjoying something we just get another box of the same thing. We have someone named each day to sterilise used toys and to go round and do touch point cleaning and then at the end of the day the whole building is sanitised using a fogging machine, so blinds, carpets and all the static equipment gets cleaned and sanitised. Each child has a basket with their name on and their own art materials in it, so when we do the fogging, they get done aswell - as do the shoes and coats that are left at nursery all the time (they have to take their shoes and coats off in the handover room before coming into the nursery). At first it was all a bit confusing for the staff but it has become part of the 'normal' routine.

OOh can I have the name of the book please?

So the government have decided to give early years the same level of funding as Spring 2020 for the coming Autumn term, as a minimum - even if fewer children are attending. That is quite a relief as it will provide a bit of additional support once the furlough has ended whilst we try and build our numbers back up. We certainly are not looking to make any money out of this sad state of affairs but without this type of extra help - we would have been looking at a few redundancies and probable closing of a couple of rooms. How do others feel? will this help keep people going whilst we all work to overcome this?

I have been very clear with staff. I sent letters stating what opening dates were and extended furloughs to those dates. They were/are expected back on those dates and would be contacted personally to be given exact hours. Anyone who was unable to work due to no childcare was to write and ask for extended dependents leave (this does not include school age children as they can go to school as childcare workers are key workers). Anyone who is shielded is required to forward a copy of their shielding letter and keep us informed of updates. Anyone who has symptoms or lives with someone who has symptoms should self isolate and send us a sick note and will be paid SSP only. Everyone else is expected back at work. If they are anxious, they may come in to the setting in advance and see the risk assessments and all the measures that have been put in place to keep them safe and have a discussion with HR. If they still don't want to come back, they resign. May seem a bit harsh but this virus isn't going to disappear anytime soon and they cannot stay off work indefinitely.

Like many of, I have struggled over the last few weeks with so many decisions to make, so many questions from staff and parents, so many people to offer support to and so much worry about the responsibility and the sustainability. Some nights I couldn't sleep and some days I almost thought it would be easier to just decide not to open again. The planning and organising has been immense, especially doing it all from home as I am shielded. But I have a brilliant management team who have worked hard throughout and we finally opened last Thursday and I just wanted to say that when I received photos from my staff today of the children playing outside along with the comments from parents on Tapestry that it was absolutely the right thing to do - the look on those children's faces seeing them running, climbing, playing on bikes and just laughing filled my heart with joy and brought a lump to my throat. We are opening our second setting this Thursday and the third one on Monday. I have no idea what the future will hold and if we will survive but today I feel very happy and grateful.

Same - PPE only for nappy changing (or dealing with a wet accident/vomit/blood) and if a child shows symptoms, they will be isolated with a member of staff wearing ppe whilst awaiting collection. Not mean at all - I have also said to a few staff that say they are afraid to come back that they need to consider their options in terms of job role as this virus isn't going away any time soon. I did have one who asked me if she could work from home as her partner is working from home and really enjoying it (He's a software writer!!!) and another one who said she was very nervous and anxious about returning to work and then we discovered she was in the Primark queue at 8.00 am last Monday morning!!