FSFRebecca

The question of how children know when to stop is very interesting - In my work I've seen oodles of different "tidy up time" songs, tambourines and even a whistle in one place!

At the recent Nursery World masterclass C.Cybele Raver spoke about the issues that can be created when askig a child to stop what they are doing and change activity. She said (I paraphrase here) 'a child is busy playing - you say, "stop what you are doing, put your toys away, find your boots and coat and line up to go outside". If the child struggles to follow your instruction they are gently reminded of it - but if it's a long list of things to remember, the upset they are feeling about having to interupt their play prevents their brain 'hearing' and 'doing' the other tasks so they might get 'told off' - Then they are upset about their game and also in trouble'

Changing activities using 'now and next' cards is also a technique I've seen many times - this can be effective for some children. In our setting, the big issue is what to so if a child wants to 'save' a model they are half way through making but this means all the bits of lego/other construction toy are 'tied' up for a while and no one else can use them and then there is a drama!

So, WChurchill goes on to say:

"I was always a dedicated professional who ensured all boxes were ticked and then probably ticked again. As I became more experienced, I sometimes felt uneasy with my developing practice. I have come to realise that child centred approaches were sometimes tolerated rather than welcomed and facilitated in schools. The structured session’s existence was beginning to be accorded a higher status to ensure positive outcomes and life chances for children. The practice of using hand bells and stopwatches in nursery at predetermined points in the day so that curriculum sessions could begin promptly and continue efficiently was not unheard of. Literacy sessions that lasted for over forty-five minutes in reception classes were sneaking back in reminding me of the literacy hour. These events did not rest easy with me and I remember an image that would pop into my mind. I likened the brain to a fluffy cloud that would grow and expand when children were engaged and challenged creatively. This image would change significantly with the brain shrinking, turning grey and heavy when being the child was being instructed in a didactic manner. I questioned what would best enable children to be successful and happy adults and what was my role in this?"

• How do children in your provision know when an activity or session is due to begin or end?
• How flexible are your routines in response to children’s interests and motivation? Where is there flexibility and what routines are fixed?

Have you had a look in our resource library? There are planning resources contributed by other members which may inspire you!

I reviewed Anna Ephgrave's book which is all in the moment planning: The Nursery Year in Action: Following children's interests through the year

There are also several threads regarding in the moment planning (I found this one by using the search tool - top right)

Whilst we wait for the workforce review to be published and the decision regarding the GCSE maths and english requirements to be released we can ponder the findings of The Centre for Economic Performance (London School of Economics and Political Science) discussion paper:

Thank you for this - it reminded me of a former headteacher who, a couple of years ago, got the staff to write their own top ten priorities for school and then reflect on whether their practice matched them. I'm going to dig them out and reflect again on whether a new school, head, management structure and class still fit with it.

That sounds really interesting I wonder what you find! Sounds like an excellent staff meeting exercise!

Forum member WChurchill (she of the wonderful New Zealand blog) has been reflecting on her own professional development and has been considering what she thinks early years priorities should be. We will be posting her thoughts here over the next few days - you will see that there are clear questions for consideration: please go ahead and put your own thoughts and experiences on the thread! I'm excited to see what we all think!

Sometimes there is so much going on in early years that the children we care for become numbers, hourly rates and occupancy data. We all came into the profession to care for and educate children - this lovely blog post shows us the effect we have and how much we are appreciated by families all over the country. This nursery does only have women working there - hence the title. However, there are men working in early years making a massive difference to children's lives as well.

To the other women raising my child…

This was fascinating, my heart goes out to her

When we 'did' this we asked everyone to bring in their favourite toy animal and we found out where they lived, what they ate etc - it was a really good introduction to looking at maps and led to interesting conversations about climate and landscape. We got lots of maths from this too - grouping the animals into land/sea, mountains/lowlands etc

Beautiful moon here - I did manage to sneak a peek (from indoors obviously, I'm not mad!)

Think on the bright side Rebecca, you might still be working but being paid...we have the holidays so we can do it for free ;-p

I do both! I'm Mrs Multitask

Sorry Rebecca :rolleyes:

Sorry not sorry - you wait I'll do a million book reviews and you'll be in such a tizz! ::1a ::1a ::1a

Grumble grumble moan.

Not me, not likely - next break is the Easter weekend

The freedom of information request put in by the PLA has resulted in the Deloitte data being released. There are several documents to go through, which you can access here. I was particularly interested in the questionnaire response summary - they say many of the things that we have been discussing here on the FSF. I am not familiar with the ICERS research

You can read the summary below:

• Funding has not been sufficiently increased over the last few years.
• Limit on the ability to charge above funded entitlement is causing a mismatch between supply and demand.
• There is often a delay on receiving funding, and it is onerous to check that you have been paid the correct amount (funding done termly, but many want to have monthly accounts).

• Will be difficult to sustain after the introduction of the national living wage.
• New pension plans may affect costs.
• Lack of joined up thinking.
• More of a drive from local authorities now to have SEND children in mainstream settings.

• Generally accepted that regulation is necessary to keep those who are too lax in check.
• Significant compliance costs.
• Local councils make demands on top of Ofsted requirements (they are not consistent, but cause additional work). It is unclear from the numerous council requirements which ones are enforced, and which are requested – causes unnecessary administrative burden e.g. frequency of assessing development.
• Sometimes, regulations on staff requirements can be too onerous.
• Takes 3-6 weeks to apply to the LA to see whether a child requires extra support (SEND).
• Registration for childminders is generally simple, though the doctor's check is expensive and difficult to arrange (£60).

• May have to cross subsidise. But some providers struggle with this as parents tend to go elsewhere if the nursery adopts additional charges.
• Providers tend to operate at ratios lower than the requirements to help build slack into the model.
• Maintained nurseries in a school setting are at an advantage because they have a wider pool of staff to call upon in the event of sickness or training.
• Well-positioned nurseries can take advantage of high demand and choose the children they want to care for, e.g. choose those who are taking about the 15 hours entitlement, to provide greater opportunities for cross-subsidisation.
• Management capability can be limited, as staff need to spend their time with the children for ratio requirements. Management and admin is often done in spare time.
• Many providers are having to take on admin themselves in their free time, as they cannot afford admin staff.
• Local authorities used to support training, but budget cuts have meant that in some places nurseries are funding this themselves. Some profitable businesses are actually offering below minimum wage.
• High costs are having an impact on quality – people are unable to operate at the ratios they want to, or to buy all the equipment/ toys they would want to offer.
• There are some strange unusual costs, e.g. fitting out a toilet with sanitary wear for children’s size. The problem is worsened when buying these things in low volume.
• Processing the different sources of revenue can be expensive in terms of back office operations. Other sources include funding, childcare vouchers, family tax credits, cash, debit card etc.
• Lack of space is a barrier.

• Ofsted ratings generally align with quality.
• Additional quality scales include ECERS and ICERS.
• Quality of service is correlated with qualifications of staff.
• Parents are generally prepared to pay for quality, however providers often keep prices low as a social commitment.
• Many providers operate at a lower child to staff ratio than required, to improve quality of service.
• Parents are concerned with safety; they also appreciate being proactively engaged.
• Quality can include additional services e.g. music and culture.
• Quality includes allowing staff to go for training, having the funds to pay for this, and to consider how much collaborative working time is needed.

• In terms of staffing, people registered at job centres tend not to have the right qualifications, and don't have the requisite passion.
• Care home work and childcare work are highly substitutable, but care home workers receive a higher wage, meaning the people with these qualification may be tempted to go there instead.
• Staff who remain in the market are generally passionate about what they do.
• Nursery schools are in competition with schools for teachers - it can be hard to recruit them.
• Demand is higher in high net worth communities, as in deprived areas parents tend to struggle to afford childcare and tend to rely on other family members more.
• Demand for places is generally higher in the morning than the afternoon/ evening, and higher mid-week than on Mondays or Fridays.
• Low wages are not attractive: particularly for childminders, who tend to take what is left after all other costs are paid. Many have reported that they make well below the minimum wage.
• Some providers may have to change their business model to incorporate 'childcare' as well as 'early education'.
• Some settings e.g. school-based nurseries are limited to providing care in term-time only.
• Hiring more staff is too costly; many providers already do the administrative tasks themselves in their own time and can't afford to bring anyone else in
• Agencies can reduce quality, as only the agency is inspected by Ofsted, not the individual setting.
• Agencies can help childminders to reduce the administrative burden of regulation, can help them find clients and advertise their services.
• It can be difficult to share information between nurseries and childminders, as they have little in common.

Support and Impacts

• Some example business models that providers could use to support them in operating efficiently would be extremely helpful.
• Providers could share training costs and send staff on communal courses. Particularly easy with core training.
• Some LAs provide support to childminders.
• Support could be given to help providers understand the trends in the market, as well as income and expenditure management, how to secure funding etc.
• Networks such as PACEY for childminders provide support.
• More information on the policy of additional 15 hours should be released, particularly in regards to timescale to help providers prepare.
• Streamline and simplify processes for SEND children e.g. funding application, approval, referral etc.
• Some children have additional needs but do not receive official approval - could there be an interim financial support in these cases.
• There is potential that there won't be a huge increase in demand post the policy of additional free entitlement, it will just switch from 15 hours of paid care, to 15 hours free entitlement, causing revenue problems for providers. Currently, many parents do not take up 30 hours of childcare, as they will work part time to spend more time with their children, so require less care.
• There may be a positive impact on occupancy, as if there are 30 free hours guaranteed, parents are likely to take this.
• Providers may have to move from offering sessional to full day care. This can be more expensive as it includes lunch etc., which may put parents off. To keep business, providers may have to absorb some of the full-day costs.

• Denmark:

Childcare is publicly subsidised. SEND children are more highly funded; inclusion is important so they are mixed in with other children. Market is municipality run; private providers must apply to municipality to register themselves. Municipality controls and regulates public and private providers. Parents are put on a waiting list, and are guaranteed a place as long as they do not have a preference of provider. Less regulated in terms of type of service offered. Parents tend to make decisions based on convenience of location. Price is not an issue, and quality is uncertain as providers are not rated. Issues in market are lack of education for employees, who often take jobs whilst studying. Service is therefore more focused on day care. Quality is based more around number of staff. Incentives that could help the market would be better links between day care and school. Less incentive to be private, profitable providers. Fewer nannies than childminders, as price for a nanny is higher due to less funding, and they are less regulated. Cultural aspect that children should not be put in institutions for more than the necessary time.

• Sweden:

More competition; parents can choose their provider. More inventive to be private, profitable providers.

• Canada:

More regulated than Denmark. Subsidised childcare may only be available to those on a low income. Subsidy payments made to parents, not providers. Issues may be similar to those in England

We had ours done at our local print shop - we 'mocked' up the design ourselves on the PC and then emailed that over with a few photos, our logo and some words - I think we paid for an hour of design and then the banner was really cheap - I was suprised £30? and now they have our logo etc we get them to rejig it from time to time and put a new one up.

Ah, yes I see. Makes sense now - I thought you meant they could be pregnant and then get a job specifically to enable themselves to get Maternity benefits - although I suppose if you were only 6 weeks pregnant and worked up to and after 32 weeks you could do that! Mmm, it does indeed make you think!

I like the idea of parents coming in to do their own thing - I will 'borrow' that idea if that's ok with you!

WE did NEST and haven't had any problems - we enrolled everyone who 'had' to be enrolled and then if they wrote and told us they wished to 'opt out' we did that the following month and reimbursed the pension from month 1. There are template letters for everything - it was pretty easy

Thanks Mouseketeer, that's what I thought. So, in other words, a person needs to have been in their job for one week (40 weeks minus 15 weeks is 25 and they need to have been working for 26 weeks) !

 

You would think I knew all this by now wouldn't you!

I don't understand your calculation?

If they have to have been working continuously for you for at least 26 weeks where has the 1 week come from? (it might just be me having a slow day!)

You don't have to use all of it

Our lovely member starsdance has got news to share!

Having read that - words fail me - well actually they don't but I couldn't possibly add such words to this forum

Not that I was away?? A girl's got a nursery to run!

I wasn't around yesterday so I missed the furore - sorry

Nursery world have a very informative article about it: Sector fury

I've heard of settings who have used it to buy the parents a bus pass to get them to nursery on time or membership of a group like Tumble Tots to help get them out and about and involved in their community - might that be possible?