Pfsu's

[Guest]

I manage a small pre-school, we are planning to form a Partnership Foundation Stage Unit with the school in September and would welcome any help and advice! The children will be on the school register in the mroning- we have offered wrap around care so they will be on the pre-school register in the afternoon. We also offer lunch club. How do other people organise their day? If you offer lunch do you ask that the children stay for a certain number? Some children are only going to stay for one lunch and no wrap around. We don't want to be used as a 'convenience' yet we need all the revenue we can get! Hope that all makes sense!

 

Thank you in advance, Rose

[AnonyMouse_3735]

from this can i assume that the wrap around care you offer will have to be paid for including the Lunch club

 

Dont know how it would work for a PFSU but As a pre-school we have a lunch club and parents enter into a contract to pay for a set period of time be it a term or half term at a time and payment must be made even if the child does not attend. this allows us to know the income for the term. it often starts with only one a week but find that they do quickily increase to more as the children become settled and actually ask to stay for lunch.

 

personally I belive that any wrap around care is for the convenience of the parents and it is their choice as to if they want to use it or not and for how long, as they pay for it.

 

I understand the need for viability and revenue needs and in our experience the best way to achieve this is often by being flexible and offering what parents want for thier children. it may give a poor return to begin with but eventually this evens out. we have found that being flexible has turned out to be our sucess in our lunch club and now have about 75% of children staying for lunch.. more stay then leave these days.

 

Good luck in your venture

 

Inge

[AnonyMouse_6541]

Hi, we used to do a lunch club for the school a few years ago when their numbers were low and they allowed children who were moving up to reception at the end of the year a full day place. We charged a fee which included the 1;30 hr the children were in our care, the collection and drop off and the lunch we provided app £5, we did this for 2 years.

 

We now work in partnership with the schools foundation unit and provide wraparound care so we have children that attend our setting in the morning who then go to school after lunch, and children who come to us just before lunch and stay for the afternoon.

 

It worked out well for us, but there is always a problem the fuller you get as the ratios still have to be maintained and your registration doesnt suddenly expand to cover these extra heads at lunch.

We only offered this to the school because the children were going back in and it made sense to help them out with this venture and in return they advertised us by word of mouth to struggling parents, and in their prospectus.

 

We now only offer set sessions which have been worked out to balance parental needs and financial sensibilities. So in short we would not offer a lunchclub to a parent for 1 hr, they would be required to pay the session fee which is 4hrs from 11.30-3.30 in order to pay for the staff that supervise that session.

[Guest]

Thank you for your prompt replies! yes, we will charge for the lunch. I guess you are right, we do have to be flexible and offer what parents want. They are probably thinking 5 mornings in the unit will be enough for their childre to cope with but as you say, they may ask for more as the children get used to it. As a pre-school we offer lunch when the childre are about 3 and a half, then they move on to staying a full day if they want.

have a good evening! What's left of it! Rose