Hello Kitty

I think as well colours can be changed without being mixed together - so by adding white it becomes lighter as opposed to a different colour. Though IMO they see that later than the different colours!!

Do you have snacks? You could have one starting with the sound... or cookery

milk, or making milkshakes, melon, mango

corn, cauliflower, carrot, cabbage, cakes

toast, tomato, tortilla

pancakes, peach, pear, making pizza

grapes, garlic, gherkin

hot dog, hummus

Just a bit of a poll really - I'm specifically interested in pre-school as opposed to day nursery really.

Is the manager of your setting counted in the staff ratio?

Does your manager have a group of key children?

If yes to the above, how much paid admin/management time do they get a week?

I currently have a day for admin but do LOTS in my own time. I have had two days a week for some of the time when we've had less children and I've managed to convince the Head that I need the time! We're school managed and I keep being asked to do more and more in the way of staff supervision, mentoring and data collection which all takes time away from my key working and I don't feel I'm doing any of it properly Newer staff recently have been surprised that I'm not out of ratio as they have come from day nurseries. The staff are behind me in agreeing that I should be out of ratio and not a key worker but I need more in the way of supporting evidence to take to the governors as it will obviously cost money to replace me in the ratio.

I hope this makes sense!

Edited to add... maybe it depends on the size of the setting... We have 100 currently on role and up to 52 in a session across two rooms. We have 8 key working staff (including me) and 3 lunch cover staff

Staff training tomorrow... I'll be scaring them witless with the 2 year check paperwork I think it';s just what we were doing anyway but you know, they hate change *shrug LOL Anyway it got me to thinking about planning again!

I visit settings as part of another job and I'm yet to see two that have the same system. Ours has developed and evolved so much and yet I still don't see it as effective. We do it because we're told we have to but actually in the day to day running we go with the children's interests like we're meant to and only really look at the plans when we set up at the beginning of the week... I'm planning a rebellion... muhahahahhaha

Ooooooh that confused me and no mistake! Hello new namesake!!

We don't wear aprons is that a requirement? I agree with Rea on the germ thing - they need to build up a certain amount of immunity surely. My children are 9 and 18 and have literally NEVER had a stomach upset. I'm not exaggerating. I am certain that's because I'm a very slapdash homemaker

We have a 5 star rating with environmental health at work but this was over a year ago so I guess rules may have changed...

Just a thought but why have they bothered to put DM statements in the younger ages and stages in the specific areas if we're not meant to be using them until they're older? Just saying...

With regards to what we share with parents. We also used to just write out a summative statement for each area along with next steps for the parents as we too were worried about parents being funny about where we had 'put them'. We are school managed and the FS manager said that school had started to be more open with parents about their children's stage of development and we had to be too. We were nervous but actually not one parent has quibbled! We have put it across as this is what WE have observed and there may be things the child does at home that we don't see at school (for example some children might never visit the book area but read loads at home). Where there is a developmental delay, parents are usually aware and happy for help.

But as has been said, you have to do what works for you and your parents.

We had to empty our building completely at Easter, (moving all units and emptying cupboards that were going to be taken out) to a different building as our floor needed replacing! The head enlisted all the teachers and TAs and we just did a mass move out on the Friday after the session. Then we were asked to go in at the end of the holidays to put it all back. Only 3 of us turned up (out of 10!!) and we got paid time and a half for the day!!

You're right that we shouldn't be moving stuff but to be fair - who should be? Plus we decided that we would rather do it ourselves than risk the builders doing it, breaking stuff or putting it in the wrong place

Ah thanks for that. Sorry I haven't replied before!

Thank you Laura (and your hubby) for the link. I'm wondering now if our water butt is actually OK as it isn't very big I'll check on Monday for the BS number.

I'm thinking if we put some hose on the tap so they can put it into the watering can they are filling there will be less spray. I'm all about minimising risk rather than removing benefits...

Just found this

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=541

Scarlettangel I think the link to CF is the reduced immunity...? My original google about water butts being safe for children brought me to a CF forum so I think it may be a disease that is particularly dangerous for them - I believe legionella affects the lungs but could well be wrong.

Anyway the link above has sensible advice IMO. You need to scroll down a bit.

Laura, could you please ask him for more information for me. How is it caught? By ingestion, breathing in...? I have read that putting charcoal in the butt stops it... is this true?

Thank you

The Oz example made me chuckle!

First of all the water is usually all gone the day after it rains as we are a large setting (56 place) so it doesn't take long for them to use it up so it really doesn't have a chance to get warm and breed nasties.

Secondly they are encouraged to wash their hands or at least use anti-bac gel when they have finished playing outside.

Thirdly OMG when are we going to teach children to DEAL with danger and risk instead of constantly shielding them from it. It really makes me cross.

:angry:

Ours never stays full for long either so maybe why that's why we've never considered it a problem - we've certainly not noticed any smells or slime in it!

Will keep you all posted then.

Oh and no idea if we're in an area of an outbreak... should probably check that!!

We were very excited to get a water butt along with our new canopy and the children really enjoy helping themselves to water to water the plants. So far nobody has tried to drink it but we do have a jug of water outside to drink so maybe that's why.

We had a guy out yesterday checking our water and systems for legionnaire's disease and the temperature etc. I haven't seen the report yet but he apparently told our site manager that we have to get rid of the water butt as it poses too much of a risk.

Thoughts please...

Oooh asking other schools is a good idea. I went to IKEA today and they do a lovely workbench and vice but bizarrely t comes with soft toy tools :huh:

It was £57 if anyone is interested - I thought it was a bit much as our site manager has offered to make one but I reckon I might have splurged if not as it's hard to find a child sized one that you can actually use...

Love love love woodwork for children I used to tutor the training workshop for it and may have encouraged some rebel practitioners to introduce it to their pre-schools too... B)

I asked our parents if they had any wood they could donate and had 4 parents bring some in which was 4 more than I expected!

I had managed to get it out for one or two weeks at a time without my staff collapsing from stress but am aiming for it to be part of our continuous provision - it's been out since just after Easter now so I may just be winning muhahahhaa. I bought a mitre saw set today - it was just under £19 in B and Q and I think it might make it a little less stressful for my poor girls

We have two pairs of goggles and the rule is they have to wear them so if there are no goggles they can't participate. This has made it more manageable for staff. We have various screwdrivers, hacksaws, different size hammers, screws, nails, allen keys and the cap head screws for them and a hand drill. We use pumpkins and golf tees when they are in season and planted our own pumpkins from the seeds of last year's so we can have them for free in future

I would like a proper work bench now as at the moment we are using a picnic bench

LOL yes it's funny how ALL children are suddenly able to be supervised in 8s isn't it?

I am so relieved. Apparently the head was told by... wait for this... the childcare sufficiency woman (don't know her full title - I don't get the privilege of being involved!) of all people!!! Our administrator told me that she had told her this and she had been asked to look it up (I suspect so she could wave it under my nose as evidence when I protested) FGS my poor girls have enough trouble managing with keeping up with potty training and nappy changing at 1:4. I emailed my EYFSA at the same time as posting here and she also said it's not true. The childcare lady has now apparently apologised for mis-informing our head muhahaha.

Oh and for those that are interested - rising 3 means 'will turn 3 by the end of the current term'. This means though that they can be as young as 2y9m which is when we accept them. Thank goodness it was wrong.

Does anyone know anything about including 'rising 3s' in your over 3s ratio? Our Head thinks we can and wants us to run with a 1:8 ratio as we take from 2y9m which is pretty much rising 3. We are obviously not keen and I'm hoping she's got her facts wrong... I can't find anything about it online.

Brilliant chart btw - I've printed it for future use - assuming we get to keep our 1:4

So it's pretty universal then

I really want to lay it all down here as it is complicated, frustrating and quite frankly wrong. My fear is that it will be seen as I always say how great this site is and after I was 'caught' yesterday, someone may look to see what I wrote as I'm sure she saw the first post. On the other hand she may have seen it and wonder what's wrong and ask me... LOL

We too have the older children trashing stuff - the role play area mostly. I flipped a couple of weeks ago and said that was it they weren't to use it and the manager made an effort to ensure it was left as we had left it. This week we've had a castle made of cardboard and thrones that were made of small deck chairs. We talked about it and agreed only R and Y1 children could use it but the other staff don't supervise them and as I was working late I was there and ended up turfing older children out myself which of course put the staff's backs up but then they didn't spend their weekend shopping for and making the resources did they?

Another real bugbear of mine, like Fimbo said, is how come our 3 year olds can put things away at pre-school yet at ASC they suddenly lose the ability??

Sorry about that guys...

OK what do you do about sharing resources? Currently ASC stuff is in locked cupboards whilst our stuff is accessible meaning that it can (and is) accessed by the ASC children. Now to be fair, I wasn't too bothered as long as it was tidied away properly. But when their stuff started to be locked away I did get a bit peeved but bit my tongue. I can see the point of having separate food and separate art supplies in that we have different budgets and need to keep an eye on what is being used/spent. However, again we can't use any ASC resources yet they have free access to our mark making trolley with glue, pens, tape, paper etc.

Gosh I just wrote loads and deleted. I guess I'm just a little worried that it might get seen by the person concerned

If anyone is able to offer an ear/advie and would be happy to do so privately I would really appreciate it please.

Sorry - unfortunately, I was interrupted!! I'll post more later

I'm sure lots of settings have this now - a pre-school sharing a setting with an after school/holiday/breakfast club. How do you make it work? I am having such issues and I just don't know what to do now

I think I'm missing something here... we already assess the children at 2 don't we? In our day to day observations and learning journey/summative records/whatever recording system you use. We also have key meetings but I guess not all settings do. So for us the 2 year old checks are just what we do already... no?

As far as which EYFS to use, as far as I'm concerned the 'curriculum' might have changed but the children haven't. They still develop the same way as they always have and I think as skilled practitioners we need to be focussing on them and our own judgements of whether the children in our care are progressing as they should. Do we really need a written programme to know how to extend their learning? Shouldn't we know what we need to be providing to help them progress anyway?

I know we have to maintain records and people are going to be worried about what format to use but we've changed so many times now - from nothing to desirable outcomes to FSP to EYFS and we've all survived haven't we? Can you imagine other professionals putting up with the amount of changes we've had and just taking it on the chin and getting on with it? Blimey, there'd be protests, strikes, goodness knows what else!!

This is something we are working on too - and tbh have been forever! I like to think of it as reflective practice

Our keyworkers are responsible for planning next steps for their key children - we update them half termly. Sometimes we do find that the children achieve them in the first week and then it's down to the skill of the keyworker to continue to develop the child in that area and to document that.

We used to just have a 'chatty' planning meeting where we'd all just chip in with activities we wanted in the room to help provide for our next steps. We then had a group time each session where keyworkers did activities that catered to their own children's needs. We also did Letters and Sounds activities within those. The way it worked was that if say, I was doing a maths activity and a few of my key children had already achieved the target learning I would see what the others were doing and pass those children to something more appropriate and I would take in children that needed my maths activity.

This was working fine for us and our summary sheets showed the children were progressing...

But as we are now under the school, we have had to go with what the FM wants and on top of this our EYFSA didn't like the way we planned

So now each keyworker writes activity plans for 2 Areas of Learning and brings that to the planning meeting. During the sessions, each keyworker has to use all the activity plans to do directed activities with the key children that need that particular learning intention. Group times are now just with keychildren and have to be Speaking and Listening based. TBH we're not liking it but are giving it a go so we can at least say WHY we do or don't like it.