Guest Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Hi all I have just taken a room leader position in Preschool with a lovely nursery near my home. . I am excited as I have been given the go ahead to develop and change the rooms. The setting has a big main room with all areas except creative as I am lucky to have a messy room that doubles up as dining room. The messy room lead out into a good size paved area that is used for freeflow. The areas will need some twiching but my biggest obstacle is being able to staff the main room, creative and freeflow at the same time. There are 3 of us, one can be in each area but when the door goes our room has to answer it , when the children need the toilet or want to wash hands from messy play a staff memebr has to go with them. A staff member has to get snack etc. So staff have to stop what they are doing and stand between the too rooms while the other staff memebr has to deal with the door or the toilets etc. At the mo running with the current routine the children only use that room for a story or first thing in the morning or last thing at night. The chldren are so used to not using the room that when I have opended it up they have gone mad....I really needs so ideas how to be able to use it all. The manager want the freeflow open all the time so I cant limit it and to be honest I dont want to, but then I dont want to have to put elements of the other area into the messy room. Do you have any advice how OFSTED will view this.... Thank you[/font]
AnonyMouse_64 Posted October 13, 2011 Posted October 13, 2011 I'm a bit confused as to your set up still and which areas you have opened up all the time and which not. Are all linked or separate? How many children do you have? Sorry for the questions rather than any constructive feedback!
Guest Posted October 13, 2011 Posted October 13, 2011 Sorry will explain better Preschool is downstairs and we have a big room with 5 areas of learning in one room . The children cam walk through to the creative room by a door way. From the creative room they can go outside. 3staff 26 children. At the mo following the current routine all the children will use the creative room with one staff, free flow is open with another staff memebr outside. That leaves another staff member who will answer the nursery door, fetch snack etc go with the chilren to wash hands as they are not allowed to go bythemself. The toilets are in another area of the nursery. No focus stuff gets down as the staff have to keep stopping and starting to do other jobs..eg. If one person is at the toliets, then somebody els will need to answer the door and the remaining person need to stand and watch the children waiting for all the other staff to come back. The preschool has soome fab resources that are not utalised as I cant not seem to get the bigger room open fully. Today I brough in the gruffalo story sack I set it up in the big room on puropse to get the chidlren in. i started the story at 10.00 and then the door went, the creative children wanted to wash hands with the staff memeber so I had to stop and stand between the two room and wait for them to come back while the other staff is in the freeflow. Just need ideas please.
AnonyMouse_3735 Posted October 13, 2011 Posted October 13, 2011 is it a school or private... assuming private... the ratio is out for private - at 1:8 should only have 24 children (over 3) for the 3 staff.. sorry no answer to the dilemma... I find it hard to see a work around without being in situ...
AnonyMouse_64 Posted October 13, 2011 Posted October 13, 2011 It does seem to me that you are under staffed for the number of children - I would want 4 staff as a minimum given the number of children, age and set up in terms of being able to adequately keep an eye on them all and have someone free to do all the other things that occur outside of the room. Would it be possible for you to get a mobile sink for the messy room, so that children are not having to leave the room to wash their hands? This may well help to cut down on the general disruption. When you say one member of staff has to leave to get snack, is this to prepare snack as well, or just fetch it from the kitchen? Do you have a clear view of the outdoor area from the messy room - could one member of staff adequately 'man' both areas if need be? Then perhaps one of you could carry out a focus activity in the large room whilst keeping half and eye/ear out on what is going on in the rest of the room.
Guest Posted October 13, 2011 Posted October 13, 2011 What a dilemma! Are they all three years olds in the setting? It seems a shame that they all have to be either outside or in the creative area, rather than engaging with other things within the pre-school. Why is the door going so often? Is this parents coming and going?
AnonyMouse_1027 Posted October 13, 2011 Posted October 13, 2011 Umm unless you have an EYP or qualified teacher you are under ratio and not following welfare requirements - sorry. If you do have a teacher or EYP you may need to think about asking parents/visitors to come at certain times where you can block an area off to help out the other staff
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