AnonyMouse_4283 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 Can any one advise me as to what the adult:child ratio is when taking children aged 3 and 4 years out of school. We have a trip to the farm planned and I was told that the ratio will be 1:5! I am not happy with this I think it's too many children to supervise in a public place and I think it's unfair of us to ask parents to look after this many children. I don't feel confident that I will be able to keep all five children close and safe. I'm really worried about the trip some of the children are first termers and haven't been in nursery long they are quite young and don't yet understand things like saftey and not running off. I really enjoy taking children out but feel we should have one adult to two children three at the most!! What do you all think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MaryEMac Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 I work in a playgroup and we have a ratio of 1 adult to 2 children when we leave the playgroup. That is why we ask a parent/carer to accompany their child when we go on trips. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 Our Pre School ratio for any outing is 1:2, we rely on parent helpers on our trips, but there isn't usually a problem with that - most parents love to come on our trips. Somewhere I think it states this ratio in our Insurance document - maybe have a word with whoever deals with the Insurance side of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 Our LEA policy is ratio 1-4 in FS but we prefer to work 1-1 if possible 1-2 max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_468 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 I work in a school Nursery class of 3 and 4 year olds too. There doesn't seem to be a set ratio. We have always worked to 1:4 in the past, but now our children seem to join nursery with less independence skills and as you say they are very unaware of safety. We are in an area where we get very poor parental involvement - we would never be in a situation where enough parents would be able to join us on the trip. Also the cost to the parents would be beyond many of their means (it's already working out at £15 a head per child with coach and farm entry - this would double if we were to ask parents to accompany their children). We've decided this year to work on a ratio of 1:3 and even this isn't ideal. We have 4 members of staff for 30 children and some parent volunteers who will also each be responsible for 3 children. The alternative is to not go on a trip. But many of our children do not have these kind of experiences in their family lives. We're an inner city school with a high proportion of EAL. Many of our children never seem to go further than their own four walls, other than to come to Nursery, so we owe it to them to give them these experiences. Obviously safety is a priority, but it doesn't stop us worrying and being on edge all day. We do our trip twice - the first day with the morning children and the second day with the afternoon children. Good luck with yours - ours is in 3 weeks time. Jackie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 We used to have 2 children to each child. Check your risk assesment now because we are not allowed to take any parents or adults related to the children with us. The theory is that if there was an accident the adult would only look after or look out for their own child. We can also only take people who are police checked. For my last 2 years in Nursery I didn`t take the children on a trip because for 40 children I could not find 19 people in school to take with me and also I wasn`t prepared for the children to spend a day with an adult they had not worked with or seen before. Instead we had activities on field , magician and party day etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 We used to have 2 children to each child. Check your risk assesment now because we are not allowed to take any parents or adults related to the children with us. The theory is that if there was an accident the adult would only look after or look out for their own child. We can also only take people who are police checked. For my last 2 years in Nursery I didn`t take the children on a trip because for 40 children I could not find 19 people in school to take with me and also I wasn`t prepared for the children to spend a day with an adult they had not worked with or seen before. Instead we had activities on field , magician and party day etc. 58264[/snapback] Sorry meant 2 children to each adult! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_705 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 We always have a ratio of 1 adult to two children as a minimum, to cover most eventualities, with parents providing the extra pairs of hands. On our summer outing children will be going with their parent/carer, staff will be extra. Deb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_3735 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 pre-school again... Same..1:2 but these days if we go out parents have to go with own child, with CRb checks etc we are no longer happy allowing a parent to look after someone elses child for the day unsupervised. Over Cautious, yes possibly but if we all have to have such stringent checks and we are seldom left on our own with children, how about a parent taking 3 or 4 children around a public place unsupervised! Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_468 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 Although we do have parents with groups of 3 children, we do stay as a whole class through the day. We do everything together - the tractor ride, pets corner, animal feeding, picnic, etc. We work our way round the farm as a whole group. The parents are never on their own with the children. We obviously have frequent toilet stops, and again we do this en masse. We go in 2 groups at a time - a parent with their group alongside a member of staff with their group. The other groups wait outside and take turns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!! We clearly need to look at our procedures, for day trips we have a ratio of about 1-4/5 all cleared staff though However the 3+ children regularly go to the local library for a wrggly readers session and the ratio is then 1 - 8. I assumed that this was the norm clearly it isn't!!!!! oh well another sleepless night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!! We clearly need to look at our procedures, for day trips we have a ratio of about 1-4/5 all cleared staff though However the 3+ children regularly go to the local library for a wrggly readers session and the ratio is then 1 - 8. I assumed that this was the norm clearly it isn't!!!!! oh well another sleepless night 58284[/snapback] yeah, when we go out its a one to two ratio for all aged children in the nursery..... basically we place wrists links on the children and then on the staff so that children are 'secure' but we still hold hands particuylarily if walking near the road.... we take ours to the library quite a lot, which is a hard task to find all the staff for the ratio's needed, particularily when we only have ten staff in teh whole nursery anyway!.... we however let students acocunt in the ratio but only on a one to one... i wonder if we should be doing that or not. I know our LEA specify a one to four ratio, but our nursery decided that was too much, hence the one to two ratio..... I hate trips, LOL.... well actually i don't i just don't like the hassle that goes with organisinsg and supervising them..... fun for the kids, pure stress for the staff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_705 Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 With regard to the point about including students in the ratios for outings, National Standard (2) states that regular volunteers can be taken into account in the normal staffing ratios but students on short term placements are not. Does this therefore apply to outings? Deb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 I take 52 children out on a 1-2 ratio. we might stretch it to 1-3 if we know those children are more street wise. I would hate to do anything less. The headache and responsibilty would be enormous to anything less. I think for us pre-school /nurseries it a left over from social services who always said 1 adult to 2 children. If i have students again depending on the student age and how responsible i would go on 1-2 or even 1-1. I always try and pick my "good mums" !!!!!! I think we all look at our parents and see who are the best because you have to think that they are responsible for another persons child and if anything goes wrong its our head on the block. They are good fun trips out and the children love them but can be a nightmare and exhausting. I'm just about to start organiseing ours!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 Previous nursery teachers in my school nursery class stopped trips due to the headaches of looking out for so many littlies. When I started last year, I did a trip on the basis that parents were asked to accompany their children, which the majority did; the remaining children whose parents could absolutely not make it, but wanted the children to go went with the nursery staff on a basis of 1:2 - I will happily manage a child on each hand, but no more becomes very stressful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4283 Posted June 7, 2006 Author Share Posted June 7, 2006 Thanks for all your replies it seems there is no set ratio for outings with young children, I will voice my concerns of a 1:5 ratio and suggest a 1:2 ratio as that's what most people have said as I don't it is fair on the staff or children as we all want to enjoy day out! I would feel terrible and so would any parent if any thing happened to a child in their care and with a ratio of 1:5 it could very easily happen. The farm we are visiting isn't one that we've been to before so I don't know how the day will be organised I will suggest that parents should always be with a member of staff!! Good luck with all your trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_73 Posted June 10, 2006 Share Posted June 10, 2006 Our LEA deosnt set a legal ratio either but we go with 1:3 or 4 in nursery and 1:5 in reception. We would never go anywheer if we had to have 1:2. We have said onoccasions that where we feel a child would not cope well that we insist the parent comes with them. More often than not in these sitautions the parenst opts for the child not to go. I think if there is no legal ratio you must be happy with what adults you have and I think a lot depends on were you are going. A coach trip to a contained place is fairly straight forwad. We never do thigs the easy way due to cost so we alwasy have to use public transport and walking! Then you might want more adults? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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